Share your opinion - Fill out the Waste Master Plan Survey here.
Garbage collection in Sarnia is going to change and you have a chance to shape how it will look.
The city wants residents to provide their input on a Waste Master Plan as it considers implementing a green bin program for organic waste. Your feedback is important in shaping this initiative.
The province of Ontario has mandated that Sarnia introduce the green bin program for organic waste to help extend landfill capacity.
Currently, the city offers garbage collection weekly, along with curbside large item pickup, yard waste collection 18 times throughout the year and brush collection on six select weeks including one for Christmas tree collection.
The proposed changes include moving garbage collection to every other week, eliminating curbside Christmas tree collection, implementing bi-weekly yard waste collection between April and December, and modifying the large item pickup to an on-demand, fee-based service with an option for free drop-off.
“The provincial policy statement says that municipalities our size have to implement a green bin program and so that piece is moving forward,” David Jackson, Engineering and Operations General Manager, tells The Journal.
“We are looking for some comments on what people's concerns are, what are things that we need to do to prepare… It does have implications on the other services related to waste, we wanted to look at it comprehensively to think about all of those pieces at once. So we strategize what we need to do for the next few years and where we want to go long-term with it.”
The survey, which can be filled out at Speak-Up Sarnia until 4 p.m. on October 22, asks residents their thoughts on the proposed recommendations, though thoughts on a change in large item collection aren’t specifically asked.
Currently, there are over 90 municipal green bin programs in Ontario, Jackson says cost has played a factor in why Sarnia has waited to start one.
“Second piece is, I think some of the municipalities who've been more advanced on it, they maybe own and operate their own landfill and so they would have a stronger incentive to increase their diversion just because their landfill is filling up…And so in our case, the county takes care of disposal and there is a landfill in the county that has had sufficient capacity and we haven’t had that pressure that some other municipalities have had.”
Diversion rates are a measurement of how well our community is at separating different types of waste and preventing waste that could be sent elsewhere from ending up in a landfill.
Sarnia has consistently maintained a 36 percent diversion rate, the municipal average is around 49 percent. The provincial government had a target of 2025 for municipal waste reduction, but Jackson says the city won’t meet this as there are still a lot of things to work out before rolling out a green bin program.
“We wanted to take a slow approach, partly so we can watch other people implement it and learn what we should do for our program,” explains Jackson.
“I would say, yes we're a little bit behind what that framework was but generally you know we are working towards it and the reality is some of these things are taking longer to implement.”
Jackson explains that working out logistics like trucks will add to the timeline before residents are putting a green bin out for pickup.
As for the next steps,
“Once we have the public input, we'll review that. We'll then consider the changes related to that to the draft master plan. And then we will bring that to council,” says Jackson.
“There's a few things that council needs to decide on right now, so we can start some of those next steps…The input [from the survey] now will just help guide some of those decisions that we're making and directions we go with various components of the waste service.”
In addition to the online survey, a public open house will occur at the Pat Stapleton Arena in the Kiwanis Room on Wednesday, October 9 at 7 p.m.
Have your say, take the survey here.
Event Details:
What: Open House for the Waste Master Plan
When: Wednesday, October 9, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Pat Stapleton Arena, Kiwanis Room
Hosted By: City of Sarnia