Changes coming to garbage pickup in Sudbury

Sudbury city council is officially backing a plan to decrease the amount of waste people produce in an effort to delay the costly purchase of a new landfill.

"If we can extendthe life of the current one [landfill] that we have by diverting garbage in the right areas with blue box, green bin and so on that will benot an immediate cost saving to us, but in the long run,"councillorReneLapierresaid during a council discussion on Tuesday.

"I want my kids to be able to live here and not have to worry about paying millions and millions of dollars for incinerators."

Starting this fall, the number of bags that can be put to the curbside will be cut back from three to two.

By 2019, people will only be able to put out one bag.

Come 2021, the bag limit will go back to two, but collection will be reduced to every other week.

25 years left for landfill

The plan will save the city $7 million dollars over 25 years the same amount of time the city's landfill has left, according to the director of environmental services, Chantal Mathieu.

"If the trucks are going by every week to pick up your recycling and your green cart, put it in there," Mathieu said.

About 95 per cent of Sudburians use the blue box, Mathieu said.

But green bin participation is only at 40 per cent.

"Let's keep it out of the landfill so we're not having to deal with replacing landfills or building waste and energy facilities to deal with this waste," she said.

Some councillors were opposed to the new rules during Tuesday's meeting, since almost 90 per cent of residents are already down to two bags per week.

No need to have more rules, sayscouncillor

"People I talk to really do want to protect our environment for our kids, but what they're saying is we don't need another bylaw," councillor Robert Kirwan said.

"We've got more bylaws on our books than you can shake a stick at."

People will be able to buy tags to put out more garbage bags than the limit allows.

The city is also planning to introduce an app calledWaste Wizard that will tell residents when their collection times are and where items should be thrown out.