Editor's note: The following information does not affect Orillia residents because, as a separated city, the municipality handles its own waste collection. These changes do, however, affect the neighbouring towns and townships around Orillia.
NEWS RELEASE
SIMCOE COUNTY
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MIDHURST – Starting Aug. 3, 2021, eligible County of Simcoe households will start to receive their waste collection carts. Almost a half million carts are set to be delivered across the region’s 16 member municipalities between August and the end of October. The new automated cart system, which is used across North America, begins November 1 and enhances collection services with an easy, safe and convenient solution to managing waste each week.
Delivery of carts to households
The county’s contractor will deliver carts to communities over the course of three months, ensuring that all eligible units have a trio of carts by Nov. 1.
- Residents should store their new carts and continue to use current containers or bags until the launch of the new collection system in November
- For the majority of residents, carts will be left at the end of your driveway. For our rural residents, where possible, carts will be delivered to the end of individual laneways, but some seasonal locations or other areas that have common neighbourhood collection points may have their carts dropped at their designated pick-up locations if crews are unable to access roads
- Carts have serial numbers and are assigned to the location where they are dropped off. Residents are reminded not to exchange carts with others. They are encouraged to write their address in the space provided and if they move, carts must stay with the property
- Delivered carts will include information on how to properly set out carts for collection
The delivery process is complex and due to logistics, weather, volume and timeline impacts, schedules will be updated during the distribution period. To receive a notification when to generally expect cart delivery in your area, please download the Simcoe County Collects App from the App Store or Google Play. If a residence has not received a trio of carts by mid-October, please notify the county.
Storage
A reminder, please continue to use the current manual collection system until Nov. 1. To help county residents adapt to this new cart system, here are some helpful tips on storing carts:
- No garage: For residents without a garage, the lids and gravity locking system on our organics cart means that bins can now be stored outside the home and remain protected from animals and weather
- Small garage: By consolidating many materials into a larger cart, residents are saving valuable floor space. Instead of multiple smaller bins, they now have three carts with increased vertical space for waste
- Long driveways: If residents have a long driveway, as many of our rural residents do, they can leave carts near the end of the driveway and transfer materials to carts as needed using current recycling bins, in much the same way as they do now and simply roll two carts out to the end of their driveway on the morning of collection. Lids and the locking system on the organics carts will protect against inclement weather conditions and animals
Universal cart sizes
Following the switch to biweekly collections in February 2020, storing materials in the current system has been reported as a concern of many residents. To address these capacity concerns, cart sizes were determined to meet the needs of the average county household based on the quantity of waste produced by a typical household in Simcoe County.
Average volume in Simcoe County during normal, non-peak, periods is 2 bags of garbage, 3 bins of recycling biweekly and an almost full green bin each week. These cart sizes enable adequate storage for these quantities. As carts are expected to last between 10 and 20 years, the county is also planning for increased capacity for additional recycling materials in the future and growth of our organics program.
Carts have been rolled out successfully all over North America, including more than 1.5 million locations in Toronto, where storage space is often very limited.
In 2022, the county will be asking for resident feedback to determine if further enhancements to this cart system would be of benefit to our residents. The public feedback program will be communicated in 2022.
The county provides residential waste collection services to the region and extends its publicly funded service to some downtown cores and businesses, and has contracts with various condominium developments. Condominium developments and businesses may choose to source private contractors to collect their waste as an alternative.
For further information visit carts.simcoe.ca, download the Simcoe County Collects App from the App Store or Google Play, or contact Service Simcoe Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1-800-263-3199 or [email protected].
The program does not apply to the cities of Barrie and Orillia.
Quotes
“The new system will provide added convenience for our residents while reducing impacts and delays to collection services through a modern and widely-used approach. Many municipalities just like ours have already switched to automated cart collection and we’re confident that after a few weeks of use, our residents will appreciate all the benefits that this system provides. We know that change can be difficult and we will continue to support our residents through awareness and education, including online at carts.simcoe.ca. We’re also committed to obtaining feedback from our residents about their experiences with the carts so County Council can assess the need for future enhancements to the program.” ~ County of Simcoe Warden George Cornell.
“We’ve heard from many other municipalities that residents need to first use the carts to assess the proper size for their household. In fact, a neighbouring community reported that a high percentage of households ultimately moved to a larger cart size after first selecting smaller options. Please experience the carts and then let us know, when we launch a public feedback process, if adjustments to the automated cart collection program are needed to better meet your needs.” ~ Rob Elliott, General Manager of Engineering, Planning and Environment, County of Simcoe.
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