Council approves garbage pickup changes for Peterborough

Unanimous vote for clear bags, collection every two weeks.

Thestar.com
Feb. 14, 2023
Joelle Kovach

There will likely be clear plastic garbage bags required in Peterborough, plus trash pickup once every other week, starting Oct. 31.

City councillors voted 10-0 at a committee meeting Monday to approve the two new recommendations from staff.

Coun. Andrew Beamer was absent from the meeting. A ratification vote at a forthcoming council meeting must take place before the plan is final.

"Most of the comments I got (from citizens) were favourable," said Coun. Kevin Duguay, regarding the proposals, adding that people want this implemented “now.”

Coun’ Joy Lachica thanked city staff “for bringing Peterborough into the 21st century” with the plan.

City waste diversion manager Dave Douglas spoke to councillors at the meeting Monday about the finer points.

He said garbage will still be collected if there is recyclable material visible in the clear plastic bags, as collectors won’t be scrutinizing the bags and rejecting them because people mistakenly threw out an item such as a soda can.

"There are going to be mistakes -- we recognize that. There will be tolerance," Douglas said, calling it “a soft approach” to encourage people who don’t recycle much to use their blue boxes.

Mayor Jeff Leal thanked Douglas for clearing up that misconception.

“I had several people stop me -- and a number of inquiries at the mayor’s office -- about whether there would be a garbage police roving around,” Leal said to Douglas.

“I’m glad you reassured the good citizens of Peterborough there won’t be a garbage police out there -- so thank you very much.”

A new organic kitchen waste pickup program is expected to start on Oct. 31 -- and the every-other-week garbage pickup (rather than every week) is planned to begin that same day.

As of Halloween, city residents will be able to place a green bin outside for curbside pickup; kitchen organics will be composted once a planned new processing facility is set up next to the Bensfort Road landfill.

The new green bin program aims to keep people from putting organic waste in the garbage, according to a new city staff report, allowed it to be composted rather than buried in the landfill.

Douglas said Monday the new kitchen organic waste pickup will remove both the heft and the “ick factor” from people’s garbage bags -- so every-other-week pickup becomes feasible, since it may take longer to accumulate a full bag of garbage.

Organic kitchen waste would be picked up every week, as would recycling, he said -- only garbage is planned to move to the every-other-week pickup schedule.

Douglas also said the every-other-week garbage pickup and clear plastic bags are meant for houses, not for downtown businesses and restaurants, although he said restaurants will be offered extra-large green bins, to participate in the organic kitchen waste program.

The large green bins meant for the curb -- as well as the smaller countertop green bins -- will be delivered to citizens’ doorsteps by September at no cost to residents, Douglas said.

He also said pet waste will be allowed in the compost, although people are advised to put it in small compostable bags before putting it in the green bin.

Also on Monday at the committee meeting:

Transit

Councillors reconsidered a vote from December 2022 to order staff to report to council by March on potential major changes to the transit system. Now the plan is to bring the report forward in September.

The motion came form Coun. Keith Riel, who said that the city’s new transit riders’ committee -- which is meant to help the city make improvements to the bus system -- hasn’t even been struck yet.

He said he wanted to give that committee “time to meet -- and make some recommendations,” adding that “city staff’s on board with this.”

Council had previously asked city staff to provide a report in March with analysis of the current grid route system, and the operational and financial implications of a potential return to a hub-and-spoke system.

Dividend

Councillors voted in favour of using a one-time special dividend of $1.8 million -- coming this month from City of Peterborough Holdings, the city’s power generation company -- to boost both affordable housing and a recreational trial extension.

Council voted to use $1.5 million of the dividend as a municipal contribution toward a planned $23-million, six-storey affordable housing project on city owned property at 681 Monaghan Road.

City staff recommended that as a way to improve Peterborough’s odds of being awarded a federal government grant for about $20 million to cover construction costs.
The idea is for the city to show willingness to contribute some cash (in addition to the land) for the project.

The remaining money from the dividend -- $240,000 -- is going to help pay to plan and design an extension of the Otonabee River Trail from Crary Park to Little Lake Cemetery.