Another New Beginning

A headline in the Auroran yesterday was a moment. The town is going to encourage the use of backyard compost bins.
I smiled.
Before the Green Bin program, the Region promoted backyard composting and sold bins at a competitive price.

 At the start of the program the home composting program was eliminated.

The material was required for the Green Bin system to work.

Single family homes were provided with two buckets. One for outside and a smaller one with a lid to collect  the scraps indoors and transfer to the  green bin in the garage ,if you had one

There being  no satisfactory way of separating garbage  that slides down a single chute, multiple residential buildings were not included.

A question of  viability of a partial program was brushed aside with a  promise of further study.

Prior to Green Bins, homeowners transported garden waste to the organic waste recycling yard  created by Miller Paving under contract to the Region  on Bloomington Road.



Finished compost could  be obtained there at no cost.

The Green Bin Program was launched  later with fanfare, substantial increased cost and no more free
compost.

Turtle Island won the contract.

Miller Paving,the competing contractor argued  experience and equipment in the bid were not properly analyzed and the award was not competitive.

Residents bought into the plan . Bottles, jars and tins were washed, boxes flattened, plastic folded  and paper tied in bundles.

Once a month  organic waste, branches cut to a certain length and tied securely, was collected
curbside.

Mothers demonstrated to children how the planet could be saved.

Buy-in was phenomenal. The program was declared a resounding success.

No plastic was permitted in the green bins.
Not much later that changed.
Plastic bags were quietly re-introduced. The fast- changing organic nature of waste proved to be too disgusting  to contemplate.

Subsequent failures in collection required meetings of the northern six municipalities and Turtle Island. More equipment had to be purchased.More personnel hired. No extra cost reported

Fastidious  householders started to notice and comment that garbage separation was futile. It was being undone at curbside.

Since the Green Bin program started, a composting plant in Newmarket proved problematic.Separating  plastic covers from disposable diapers was a problem.

The plant was eventually closed by court  order because of offensive odours from the process.

Composting  material has had to be transported to a facility in Quebec since .

A joint  York/ Durham  garbage incinerator was completed and is no doubt in operation.An extravagant opening celebration was organized.

Turtle Island  has been sold to another contractor .

Now a new beginning is planned . Clear bags  presumably to ensure prohibited material will not find its way into the incinerator, while opaque bags  are permitted inside the clear.

Garbage limits are proposed to be imposed .

Policing  of new restrictions will be enforced. Stickers will be stuck on uncollectibles.

Restricted service is reduced service yet  no reference is made to reduced cost .