After two years of testing if rural residents want garbage and recycling pick-up, county council killed its pilot project on Oct. 30.
The vote was unanimously in favour of the solid waste services committee recommendation to end the experiment. But the county also voted to continue pick-up in Guelph-Eramosa Township – for now.
Committee chairman Bob Wilson said in an interview on Monday night most councillors simply deemed the project, carried out in Minto and Guelph-Eramosa, as being too expensive.
Wilson said that over two years, there was 533.4 tonnes of garbage collected, and 486.5 tonnes of recyclable material. The total cost was $654,256.
By comparison, he said, if that amount of material had been collected at a transfer station, the total cost would have been $55,162.
“The pilot cost 11.9 times as much to manage the same material versus at the curbside – which we knew all along,” Wilson said.
He was referring to studies the county did in 2001 and statistics collected before and during the pilot study. Back then, long-time Minto councillor Jim Connell told county council repeatedly that rural residents in Minto did not want or need garbage pick-up.
County councillor Lou Maieron pushed continuously over the years for the pilot, convinced council to at least try it, and after one year convinced council to continue the pilot for a second year, albeit with collection every two weeks instead of weekly.
Some county councillors attempted to kill the project in March, but others voted to keep it going, as agreed, until the fall, when a final decision would be made.
While Minto residents showed no interest, collection is much more appreciated in Guelph-Eramosa.
County councillor and township Mayor Chris White noted old Eramosa township had rural collection before amalgamation in 1999.
He said it was continued for that reason, and also because the township has no transfer station. He added, “The folks out there wanted to use it.”
White added the provincial government is also considering legislation that will increase recycling by forcing the producers of recyclables to pay for what goes into blue boxes.
Wilson said at county council the studies had been consistent in showing the numbers would be low for use in Minto.
He said it would be difficult to abandon pick-up in Guelph-Eramosa, with no transfer station near that community, “until we can build one.”
