Bradford West Gwillimbury residents “desperately need” year-round yard waste pickup, said Deputy Mayor James Leduc, but Simcoe County council does not support it.
Yard waste pickup was extended an extra week this year because of the late spring and some confusion about pick-up dates for the county’s new textiles recycling program, prompting some local residents to express their frustration on social media that it is not available year round.
“We continue to cut our grass and sometimes have clippings when it’s very long … and leaves and branches continually need trimming. Why our yard pickups can’t go all summer is beyond me,” said Silvia Fader on Facebook. “As well, not everyone has a vehicle to transport large bags and some don’t drive at all, making it difficult to get to the dump.”
“Should be every two weeks all summer. Why they have it in December I will never understand,” added Trish Dollin on Facebook.
Leduc said he and BWG Mayor Rob Keffer, who are members of county council, have urged council to include more yard waste pickups, even unsuccessfully lobbying a plan by Keffer that would have included 10 pickups — instead of the current nine — between April and November.
“Our residents want more service. They need more service,” Leduc said. “We tried to get it implemented … but the county council didn’t want that.”
Leduc said having more service is important, especially in light of an increase in “freak weather storms” that knock down trees.
He said the problem is getting other county municipalities that are not as heavily urbanized as BWG on board because they typically need less yard waste service.
But with the municipal election coming up, Leduc said he hopes the next term of county council will include more supporters of extending yard waste pickup throughout the region.
Currently, there are four yard waste pickups in the spring in BWG, and there are five in the fall.
“We’ve never done it all summer. We have a standardized service across the county,” said Rob McCullough, director of solid waste management with the County of Simcoe.
The matter of potentially increasing yard waste pickup was last voted on in 2016, he said, but county council voted it down, in part, due to cost.
To maintain the current level of service would cost $835,000 per year, according to a solid waste management report submitted to the county’s committee of the whole in June 2016.
That is the option county council selected at the time.
Comparatively, a second option would have costed $1.3 million a year to extend yard waste pickup by running it every other week between April and December, the report read. This would have meant 17 yard waste pickups a year.
In a third option, it would have cost $951,000 to extend yard waste pickup bi-weekly for eight consecutive weeks starting the third full week of April, four consecutive weeks starting the third full week of July, and 10 consecutive weeks starting the first full week of October, read the report. This would have meant 11 yard waste collections a year.
These figures do not include the costs associated with Christmas tree pickup, which ranges from $119,000 a year for the current option, to $105,000 a year for the second option.
Along with costs, increasing the number of yard waste pickups is “less environmentally friendly,” McCullough said.
Grass clippings are 85 per cent water and decay much faster than leaves, “returning valuable nutrients back into the soil,” read the solid waste management report. “Grass-cycling is preferable over curbside collection as it is more economical and an environmentally superior option.”
McCullough said the county has not heard from any residents upset about the level of yard waste pickup.
“We haven’t heard through the municipalities. It is the mayors and deputy mayors (on county council) who made this decision,” he said.
Currently, Simcoe County is a couple years into a 2017-2022 contract with Miller Waste Systems for collecting garbage, recycling, textiles, and, this fall, the county’s first electronics waste pickup.
“We are locked into a contract. We will naturally re-look at that. We’ve got good solid council direction,” he said.
