Michael Suddard commented on our post ‘What is the Clear Garbage Bag Program – My Understanding’. With his permission his comment from last week was converted to the blog post, see below. Michael was a long-time resident of Town of Aurora before moving to Ottawa. We can always count on him to provide a great perspective on issues that affect our Town.
Comments by Michael Suddard, January 20, 2015:
There are couple of interesting points in this post:
1. Grocery bags are allowed to be used in the clear bag program. But what about regular garbage bags? What would happen if I put a garbage bag in a clear plastic bag then to curb. Technically I might be adhering to the rules.
2. Safety is a bunch of malarky. Aurora is going to the clear bag route in the name of “safety”. But what about Newmarket? The same company picks up there and other northern municipalities, how are Aurora workers picking up garbage different from the others? Let’s stretch this a bit more and roll back the clock. Miller Waste used to have the contract for Aurora, they currently hold a contract in Ottawa and have deal with black garbage bags from my bin.
3. The green bin program, lead by York Region, has a pick up issue. Using grocery bags was a convenient way until they were phased out. Ottawa doesn’t allow them either, but they did it from the beginning. In Ottawa though the Green Bin use rate is lower than expected mainly because people were banned from using grocery bags. What the Town of Aurora and the Region of York do not mention is you do not have to use the compostable bags for your Green Bin. A while ago after moving to Ottawa I came across this gem that works in the Ottawa system. I tweeted to the Region of York and received confirmation that this method would also work:
I do agree education on each component of the waste system would help. I believe the northern 6 municipalities and possibly in conjunction with the Region of York, could develop a single set of educational material to educate the public quickly and easily. But, sadly, each municipality seems to want to forge ahead on it’s own.
Michael Suddard
Ottawa, ON
UPDATE: The controversial Town of Aurora Clear Garbage Bag program was never implemented due to strong public opposition.
