Tale of two bins
Recycling change forces long drive to Colborne
I’ve written in the past about the transition Northumberland County and the entire province has been going through with our recycling system. This week I found an annoying wrinkle in the plan.
We have actually had it pretty easy in Trent Hills because the county made the transition to the new operator last year while retaining final control. The system was working well and just managerial oversight responsibility was transferred on Jan. 1.
But I’ve personally found one glitch in the new system that was inconvenient for me and will be for others in the future.
Last week I put my recycling and green bin out on Wednesday night so they would be ready for pickup at 7 a.m. But I didn’t bother to check the weather forecast, and I inadvertently set up a race between the snowplows and the recycling and waste trucks. Unfortunately for me the plows won.
In fact, the plows won twice, as I’ll explain. When I looked out in the morning my full green bin had been buried in snow and the blue and grey bins had been shifted. I went out to check the bins and discovered that my grey bin had been battered by the street plow and was just a frame with broken sides that flapped in the breeze.
Then, I looked up the sidewalk and saw the remains of a grey bin and its contents. I assumed the sidewalk plow had hit mine and dragged it toward my neighbour. But when I went to pick up what I thought was my mess I realized it wasn’t my bin, or my papers and cardboard. They came from somewhere down the street. Still, I picked up what I could and stuffed it into what was left of my grey bin.
In my previous story I included a link to email Circular Materials, the company that now runs recycling, if you needed bins. Since I now did, I sent them an email. I knew that in the past we could pick up bins at the town office, or the Seymour Community Recycling Centre.
This is where things took a real turn for the worse with our new system. I received a quick response to my email but was told by a helpful woman who works for Miller Waste, the contractor that actually picks up material: “Circular Materials are temporally no longer charging for recycling bins. Replacement bins are now free of charge; however, we do not deliver so you will have to pick up your new bins from our Northumberland location at 292 Big Apple Drive, Colborne ON. Our facility is open Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m – 12 p.m.”
Google told me that was 41 kilometres and 35 minutes away.
On Tuesday morning I made the trek to Big Apple country. I have to warn you, if you find yourself needing bins that the office is hard to find. It is across from the Ultramar gas station but is tucked behind Durham Transport’s large garage and truck yard.
I couldn’t see any signs about recycling or bins but as I was about to get out of the car I spotted Miller Waste trucks about 100 metres away. I cut across the lot and located two unsigned portable office units where I finally got my new bins. By the way, the one for paper products is now light blue, not grey.
At this point, I figure Doug Ford owes me about $200 for my time and the gasoline that his new system cost me. I think there should be a depot somewhere in the north end of the county where people can pick up bins, but I won’t hold my breath.
You can read all Trent Hills News stories on my website here.
Really strong reporting on the hidden friction costs here. The 41km requirement basically offloads the true expense of privatization onto residents, turning a recycling problem into an accessibility disaster. I dealt with simlar contractor switching issues last year and dunno if officials realize how many folks just buy bins at hardware stores instead.
Yes, when I mentioned this to my neighbour he immediately said, Well, it's good that you're retired. But I don't want to spend my time running around doing such things. The new company needs to make an arrangement with some business in the north end of the county to provide boxes.