These numbers aren’t trash: Green bin use up 120 % a year after garbage pick-up changes

It has been a year since Waterloo Region began its new bi-weekly garbage pick-up program and now it’s being called a major success.

Last March, the region switched to bi-weekly garbage pick-up with weekly blue box and green bin collection.

Green bin use has sky rocketed 120 per cent over the first nine months of the program.

Blue box recycling has improved by 8 per cent and yard waste pick up increased by 4 per cent.

The end result is 29 per cent less waste ending up in the landfill.

Prior to the rules changes the region lagged behind other similar sized municipalities when it comes to blue box use,

“We were measuring our diversion rate around 52 per cent, now that was pretty low comparatively across Ontario, it looks like we are estimating in the higher 50’s so we are looking at 58 per cent, but that’s not confirmed yet.” said Barsoum.

Another success of the project was the early adoption of the rules.

Barsoum says they were initially concerned that residents would have issues following the new schedule, but those fears went away quickly,

“What was really great for us was how quick this caught on, we had worries that we were going to have a lot of confusion on this, it was incredible how quickly the resident took this on, made it their own and made it work.” said Barsoum.

One of the major drivers of the program’s success was a green bin give away just before last year’s March launch.

In the future, the region will look at lowering the bag limit from four bags every two weeks to three bags.

The math has not been done yet, but if these numbers continue it could mean a much longer life for the region’s landfill that currently has only 15-20 years left.