Diabetes Canada asking for help clearing garbage and textiles from around their donation bins. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Keaton Brown

Bins are closed

Diabetes Canada asks municipalities to keep bins free of garbage

May 26, 2020 | 1:15 PM

Diabetes Canada issued an open letter to Canada’s mayors and municipalities asking for their help to clear garbage and soiled textiles from their donation bins.

In the letter, Diabetes Canada said “we all have a stake in the health and safety of our communities. Now more than ever, we need to work together to protect residents while we do our best to live and work in new challenging ways.”

Some municipalities have started to help by removing all garbage and soiled donations dumped around their donation bins.

They are asking all municipalities across Canada to do the same.

“We can’t do it alone. We simply don’t have the resources or funding to clear the waste around our bins,” they said.

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North Battleford Mayor Ryan Bater said Diabetes Canada closed all of its donation bins due to COVID-19 on March 23, but not everyone in the general public was made aware immediately.

“People still kept coming with their clothes and even though the bins were closed, they were just piling them up next to the bins and so this was becoming a problem,” he said.

When the issue was brought up at city council, North Battleford’s Director of City Operations Stewart Schafer said that the responsibility for removing the garbage and clutter from around the bins has fallen on the property owners and they have been clear when his crews checked in on them.

He said this hopefully means people are starting to get the message that these bins are closed and are no longer dumping textiles at the sites.

“If you are a regular donator of used clothing to Diabetes Canada, just hold on to them for now until the bins are reopened. Don’t leave them next to the bin because they won’t get to Diabetes Canada, they will be treated as garbage,” Bater said.

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Keaton.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow