Hamilton residents will have to wait until next February to get their leaves picked up

Thestar.com
Dec. 13, 2021

Hamilton residents who still have leaves in bags waiting to be picked or strewn about their property will have to wait until the end of Feb. 2022 for the city to pick them up.

Under a new contract the city started in 2021, council decided to end year-round leaf and yard waste collection, saving about $300,000 annually. Acting Public Works General Manager Craig Murdoch said the city had year-round leaf and yard waste collection for about a decade, five days a week.

But several councillors suggested at the Dec. 6 Public Works Committee extending the leaf and yard waste collection period by a week so bags of leaves that homeowners had left out could be collected by the city.

“There are people who are being caught with leave and yard waste,” said Ancaster Coun. Lloyd Ferguson. “The leaves took a while to come down this year because (the weather) was so mild.”

He said one homeowner had 20 bags of leaves sitting by the curb waiting to be picked up.

Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr said one homeowner in his ward had 15 leaf bags waiting to be collected, and he was considering helping the resident bring the bags to a municipal recycling centre.

Murdoch said adding an extra week to the leaf and yard waste collection would cost the city about $51,000.

“I think we could accommodate it internally,” he said.

But Murdoch, who lives in Ancaster, told the committee, a majority of Hamilton residents followed the city’s expanded communications about the service change and didn’t put out any leaf or yard waste.

The city stopped collecting yard waste during the week of Dec. 6 and won’t resume the service until Feb. 28. Yard waste can still be taken to a community recycling centre free of charge all year long.

“We had an extensive communication plan,” said Murdoch. “We know it was a change. We are hoping it is a very small number of people affected by this change and were not affected by it.”

The city’s waste calendar that is sent to all households also identified the change in leaf and yard waste service.

Still, if councillors approved providing extra weeks of yard waste collection, Murdoch said staff could make it happen. But it would mean negotiating with the contractor to provide the service.

Curbside Christmas tree collection is not affected, and the material will be picked up during the first and second weeks of January of each year.

Angela Storey, acting director of waste management, said there were “some pockets” of homeowners who put out yard waste bags at the curb. She said residents have called the customer contact centre about leaf pick up unaware of the service change. She said residents have several options to get rid of bags of leaves, including taking the waste to the community recycling centre.

Several councillors, including Coun. Nrinder Nann and Maria Pearson, didn’t want to spend any extra funding for additional leaf collection, which was ultimately supported by the committee.

“I’m not on to adding $51,000 to our operating budget for 2021,” said Nann.