No doubt that the majority of  the Town of Aurora residents are resisting the clear garbage bag program scheduled for implementation this summer. Despite the public resistance it was clear that during the General Committee meeting at the Town Hall on March 03, 2015 the majority of the Aurora Town Council were in favour of the program.

In my opinion, none of Councillors in the chambers who were in support of the program that evening had a valid reason to support the program in its current form, mainly assumptions. In my opinion, the clear garbage bag program is not the best waste diversion tool to promote the waste diversion awareness. There are better methods on educating our Town of Aurora community and I will touch on that later. My biggest issue now is that the Town and those Councillors in support of the clear garbage bag program assume that we have the same waste diversion behaviours as Markham residents. To date there is no valid Town of Aurora data to support the implementation of the program. Mainly assumptions.

Now, speaking of assumptions. That evening my unexpected disappointment beside the clear garbage bag program was the reasoning behind the program by those in support Council members. The reasoning was based on more and more assumptions about Aurora residents. I encourage you to watch the clear garbage bag conversation segment of the meeting online – General Committee Meeting March 03, 2015.

I will not comment who said what but I do have my own comments back.

“I am not resisting change, I am resisting assumptions.” ~ Anna Lozyk Romeo

First, two out of three people in the audience that evening were in the opposition of the program. The one out of three was in support of the clear garbage bag program. That person was a resident of Aurora and also a consultant for the Clear Garbage Bag program. I think that person should have never been identified as the supporter of the program. It’s a conflict of interest to include him in the group of supporters because he also has vested interest in the program.

I also want to emphasize that when we have party at our house we rarely use disposables. But when we do we sort them properly after the party. It is not fair to assume that Aurora residents have bad cleaning up habits after the party. It was a clear assumption coming from Council member based on his own habits.

The more assumptions. I know three people who do not regularly put out green bin or blue bin every week. Why? Because they are the only person living in the house and they do not generate enough garbage to take it out every time. This was another assumption from Council member who went out to observe curbside garbage in Aurora and was implying that residents were going to hide pop cans in the black garbage bag. May I also say that we in our household rarely drink pop from cans, may be three cans or less a year.

So to conclude, my disappointment that evening was that I believed that elected Town Council members are voice for the Town of Aurora community and not their own voice. It is not appropriate to criticize our community based on the assumptions especially by the Council members. I think that the comments about our community were not fairly stated. I am disappointed because I am resident of Aurora and I take pride for my own waste diversion knowledge, my own waste diversion good habits and my household initiative to generate less garbage by buying less.

Okay, I am fine now that I let all that out.

UPDATE: The controversial Town of Aurora Clear Garbage Bags program was never implemented due to strong public opposition.

Anna Lozyk Romeo
Aurora, ON