Garbage rates increase by 16%

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by Calli Stromner with files from Paul Smith

Morinville residents will be paying 16 per cent more for garbage collection than they did in 2013 after Council approved the Waste Management Bylaw during Tuesday night’s regular meeting. The $2.70 per month increase covers the cost of providing weekly garbage collection and recycling collection throughout the year. It also adds mandatory organic waste collection to the town’s service offering, providing weekly pick-up from May 1 – Oct. 31 and monthly pick-up during the winter months. Organics would be placed in the current yard waste containers.

“At current rates, our landfill is good for roughly 50 years,” said Councillor Rob Ladouceur when making the motion to approve the Waste Management Bylaw. Ladouceur is also the Council representative on the Roseridge Waste Management Commission. “If we could make it last longer, then the fees won’t go up as much because we will be able to be more sustainable.” He added that the new organic waste collection will be better for the environment, which is an important pillar for Council.

Councillors also suggested that while weekly waste pick-up will still occur this year, it may change to bi-weekly pick up in future years so that less actual garbage goes to the landfill. “I do agree that we will have to force the issue (of diversion),” said Councillor Barry Turner. “But at the same time to ensure that the long-term success of the program, I think the introduction of the organics stream first it will be more likely to succeed with that strong education component.”

Residents now have a very short window of time to keep their bins out, however. Under the new Bylaw, residents who place their bins out prior to 7:00 p.m. the night before their scheduled pick-up day or leave them out past 11:00 p.m. on their collection day can be fined either $100 for a first offense and $200 for repeat offenses.

The Town has been divided into two specific areas to coordinate waste collection activities with other public services, such as street sweeping and snow ploughing. Those households located north of Highway 642 (100 Avenue) will see garbage trucks on Tuesdays while those located on the southern portion of Hwy 642 (including South Glens), will have to place their bins out on Wednesdays.

8 Comments

  1. Is there seriously a bylaw for not having your bin in and out on time??? I think the bylaw office could focus on something a little more important. Perhaps they could spend some time on the trails and fine people that don’t pick up their dog poop.

  2. How are they going to get the organic out of the bin when ever thing is frozen, when only collect monthly?????

  3. I’m wondering how much more or (less, which is doubtful) garbage has been going to landfill since closing the recycling center on 107th street? Letting the public do their own recycling on their own dollar seemed to make more sense to me.

  4. Really? Shouldn’t this have been published next week, say on April 1st?? What a joke !

  5. I’m happy to see an organics program. I’m guessing we’ll have to put degradable bags to put in our bin, similar to St. Albert.

  6. So we keep the tax rate down only to have a double-digit increase in garbage. I wonder what the water and sewage increases will be this year? If this is any indication, they won’t be good. I think that closing the recycling depot was a big mistake as that was the best method of diversion that we had. I would have expanded it, rather than closed it. It was a great place to dump grass cuttings, rather than in the bin every two weeks. Decreasing the frequency of pickup will increase garbage dumped in other areas. You need to have an excellent recycle program in place before decreasing frequency. Airdrie has a great recycle centre set-up.

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