Council has directed administration to form a working group, where Mayor Jeff Genung and manager of waste/recycling Fabrizio Bertolo are challenging naysayers to have a change of heart on biweekly garbage pickup. Dubbing the working group ‘Mission Black Bin Impossible,’ Genung is hopeful increased awareness will help residents understand it’s not about cutting services, rather about redistributing where waste goes. “I’m challenging us – the town – to prove this is doable. This is not government forcing you to confoirm,” said Genung, adding that he is open to being proven wrong. Since bringing the proposal of switching to biweekly garbage (black bin) pick up to biweekly from weekly back to council two weeks ago, social media has been abuzz with views ranging from outrage to applause to town council’s efforts to achieve its Zero Waste mandate (80 per cent diversion from landfill) by 2020. As all of Cochrane’s waste is transported to Calgary – who will be imposing fines by next fall to violators of the 80 per cent waste diversion – the town maintains it is trying to be proactive to ensure the town does not run into higher landfill costs or be left to turn to other solutions and likely rising costs to ship landfill elsewhere. Coun. Pat Wilson took issue with administration’s proposal to allow residents to purchase an extra bin for $45 – with the steep rate of paying an additional $13/month for pick up of the second bin viewed as “an extraordinary burden to people.” Coun. Tara McFadden countered that in order to effectively achieve the zero waste mandate, the town should be careful to not make it too accommodating for those who can’t change their habits to adjust to biweekly garbage pick up. “I think if we’re going to change people’s habits we need to make it uncomfortable to stay the way you are.” The pick up schedules for recycling (blue bin) and organics (green bin) will remain weekly, with continuation of organics alternating from weekly pick up in the summer to biweekly in the winter. “It’s one of those great opportunities where being financially responsible and environmentally responsible line up,” said McFadden, stressing that over half the town is already in full compliance of organics diversion from black bins. McFadden praised administration’s proposed large item pick up and alternatives for larger families, including bringing waste to the Eco Centre Tuesday to Saturday in clear bags at $3 per bag. Couns. Susan Flowers and Marni Fedeyko were both in favour of extending the six-month application period to 12 months for families in need of the additional bag to accommodate either medical needs or diapers. Coun. Alex Reed emphasized that it’s likely there will be a vocal segment of the population who won’t be on board, no matter how much public education is involved. Council voted in favour of the working group, with the exception of Coun. Morgan Nagel, and continued public awareness and engagement with the town. A vote on whether or not to move ahead with biweekly pick up will be held in February 2019. The sentiment from some members of the community who are angered that Calgary’s black bins are twice the size was met with administration’s response that doubling Cochrane’s bins will not help the overall plan to achieve 80 per cent waste reduction by 2020. Switching to biweekly black bin pick up will keep waste/recycling rates at the status quo of $21.55/month through next year. Not switching would result in a 2.3 per cent cost hike in 2019 for services.
