One bag garbage limit may be coming next year
By Richard Blanchard

Simcoe county's move towards introducing an organic waste pickup program, which would also see residents limited to one bag of regular waste per week, cleared another step last week.

Members of the county's corporate services committee gave their approval to the program.

Residents will have the option to buy bag tags for extra waste and would be allowed to throw out two bags of waste after holidays, Christmas Day, Victoria Day and Thanksgiving.

Some of the county councillors, whose muncipalities have a high number of seasonal cottagers, expressed concerns about the program's fairness.

Wasaga Beach deputy mayor George Lawrence said that he still had concerns about the one bag program resulting in problems from seasonal residents meeting the limit.

He introduced an amendment to allow two bags of waste to be picked up at Thanksgiving.

Severn township mayor Phil Sled said that all residents of the county would have to make accommodations to ensure that the program worked.

"I have found that a lot of seasonal residents are very conscious about expanding recycling programs. We can't educate everybody on this and some can't be educated," he said. "Not everyone can be accommodated but I think this is a good option to divert material from the landfill."

Innisfil deputy mayor Gord Wauchope, who initially had concerns about the reduction to the one bag limit, said that he felt that residents, both permanent and seasonal, needed to be educated.

"Basically, they still get a two bag limit. There will be other ways of getting rid of waste by using the organic container," he said.

Adjala-Tosorontio mayor Tom Walsh said that he was still concerned about the ability to purchase tags for additional waste.

But staff said that elsewhere in the county, only a small number of extra tags are sold during the year per capita.

Adjala-Tosorontio has had an organics program since 2003, without the option of buying additional bag tags.

The next step will see county council vote on the program next week. If approve the organics program will be slated to begin next fall.