No “User Pay” Trash Collection – for now

By Mayor Doug White Letter to Bradford Times April 28 2011

Dear Residents: On Tuesday, April 26, Simcoe County Council overwhelmingly supported my motion to put the brakes on the “full user pay” waste management program, in an 84-9 recorded vote.

Previously, County Council had approved the plan, which would have required a tag for each bag of garbage in order for it to be picked up by the contractor. It was part of an aggressive plan to increase our diversion rate to keep more material from landfill.

There are a number of reasons why I oppose user pay. 

First, the current County program is working. When we implemented our green bin organics program in September 2007, our diversion rate was 33%. We are now at 60%, second in the province according to Datacall – a tremendous achievement!

In fact, the County has received national awards for our waste management program. Let’s continue the current practice of adding more items to the organics and recycling streams, and increase our diversion rate each year. User pay is unnecessary.

Second, the majority of our residents will pay more than they do now, under user pay. The current annual household cost is $70 for organics/recycling, and $70 for garbage collection. Under full user pay, the organics/recycling fee would stay at $70, but there would be a $3 charge for each bag of trash. Therefore each BWG household putting out more than 24 bags per year would pay more, while residents who put out fewer than 24 bags a year would pay less.

Households putting out 1 bag per week would pay $220 per year – a 57% increase!

Third, over 60 jurisdictions in the Province have User Pay programs. The County is 2nd in diversion rates. Why would we adopt practices of places that do a poorer job at diverting from landfill than we do?

Finally, the most recent comparison of County municipalities (2009) shows Bradford West Gwillimbury is first in Organics (49.49 kg/capita/year) and first in Recycling (88.58 kg./capita/year). I am proud our community leads the way in diversion, and have complete faith this trend will continue under existing waste management policies.

– Mayor Doug White