Some examples of the waste being tossed into the individual garbage carts, and the reason why the district was forced to make some changes. (District of Lakeland)

By Nigel Maxwell

Garbage collection

District of Lakeland nears home stretch for garbage collection change over

Jul 29, 2021 | 1:23 PM

The rollout of new 66 bear-proof containers in the District of Lakeland is nearly complete, but the process has been met with some growling amongst ratepayers.

The decision to move away from using 1,800 individual garbage bins was made to address the increasing number of bears in the area, and previous efforts to educate ratepayers about proper use and storage of the bins weren’t working. On Thursday, administrator Tammy Knuttila explained the majority of the changeover is complete but added there was still some tweaking being done.

“There was actually one someone asked us to re-look at and we moved it, so now we are getting calls that the people wanted it where it was,” she said.

Knuttila explained one of the most concerns is related to the noise created by the bins. She said the district has done its best to locate the bins at the entrances/exits to the subdivision, as opposed to amongst the residences, but it’s not always possible.

“Murray Point, for example, there’s one where we did it in the subdivision and people are saying couldn’t you put it out at the highway you like at Okema. Well, the highway coming out is the province’s and not our road so they won’t let us put them there, and at Okema, that’s our road allowance,” she explained.

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In this month’s administrator’s report for council, Knuttila discussed several complaints the district has received, including one suggestion that the district needs some significant public education on the expectations after the conversion. Recycle bins, although blue in color, are not labeled as recycling only—except for a few that say cardboard only.

“We have worked hard at establishing a mixed material recycling program in conjunction with the North Central Waste Management Corporation, and it is important that this continues,” Knuttila said in her report, adding the District asked Greenland to label the recycling bins as people have been putting garbage put into them since they were put out.

Another social media post mentioned containers were not bear-proof because the lids were plastic, when in fact, if the lid was plastic, it was for recycling and not waste.

“People also seem to be under the impression that the new bear-proof bins were to accommodate everything that was going into the individual carts, when in fact, the bear-proof bins are meant to accommodate food waste only as they have always been for— but people were not respecting that whether they had individual carts or not,” Knuttila said.

When Knuttila looked closer at the issue, she discovered material was being placed in the individual containers and the bear-proof bins such as yard waste, construction material, toilets, lawn chairs, patio furniture, and even half full fertilizer containers.

More examples of the items being thrown into the individual bins. (District of Lakeland)

The district’s policy and bylaw for waste collection were modelled after the one used by the City of Prince Albert, but Knuttila said it’s been tough to enforce.

“We’ve probably taken about 200 bins away from people who were violating the bylaw, and you give them back and they violate another provision of the bylaw,” she said.

Moving forward, Knuttila said the solution is not more bear-proof bins, but rather the bins being used for their intended purpose. The end goal is not to pay for this material to go to a landfill when it doesn’t have to.

“I think people have been generally pleased when they go to our transfer station and they see we have this set up to reduce the amount that goes into the landfill,” she said.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell