Councillor suggests recycling bags for Stouffville

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 20, 2016
By Sandra Bolan

Clear recycling bags and animal-proof green bins are on Ward 1 Councillor Ken Ferdinands’ wish list for the next waste collection contract.

He is not alone. Some of the 220 Whitchurch-Stouffville residents who completed a recent waste collection survey asked for the same things.

“I’m astonished the region is not moving in that direction” of clear plastic bags for recycling collection, Ferdinands said during Tuesday afternoon’s discussion on the upcoming N6 municipal waste joint procurement contract.

The issue was discussed and shelved a couple of years ago at regional council, according to Rob Flindall, Whitchurch-Stouffville’s director of public works.

He told councillors it was vetoed by the region because it was too expensive to invest in the processes required to open the bags.

The N6 consists of York Region’s northern six municipalities: Aurora, East Gwillimbury, Georgina, Newmarket, King and Whitchurch-Stouffville.

The contract expires next year, however, town staff anticipates it will take 12 to 18 months for a new contractor, should one be selected, to order trucks and equipment as well as put processes in place, according to the staff report. The contract is expected to be awarded this June.

Green For Life (GFL) is the current contractor. In early January 2014, GFL’s trucks malfunctioned and the weather was too cold for drivers to go out, so collection was one day spontaneously cancelled.