So the green bins have been delivered and the schedule has been set for a staggered start in April for residents to get their first pick up of organic recycling and yet people are still complaining to the City saying that they don’t want it.
Sorry it is too late, the bins are here now, use them.
I had some reservations about these bins.
What would I use them for? I have a garburator and I mulch my grass, which is the best thing you can do for your lawn so what could go in there? Now that I have the bin, I will use the garburator less as I have learned it costs more for the water treatment then for me to walk out to my sidewalk with a bin once a week. I’ll put some grass in there and other yard trimmings. But I am the minority. There are only two of us in the house and we don’t have a lot of waste.
We won’t have any pizza boxes for the bin or fast food containers because we don’t eat that stuff. We do have lots of produce and food scraps so that’ll go in the bin.
I remember back in Saskatchewan when we were told we couldn’t burn the garbage anymore and we had to use garbage bags.
The end of the world didn’t come then and it won’t now.
I have heard every excuse and reason for not wanting these bins and most of them make very little sense at all.
I love the one that if I don’t use it why should I pay for it?
Well if I do use it and use all the other city recycling options and I have no garbage for that week should I get a week off my City bill for the garbage portion? I doubt it.
What if I go away for a month and don’t use any water maybe the City will take care of the fixed charges on my utility bill for that month as well. Again I doubt it.
Maybe a third option for me. Since I don’t have any kids, why should I pay an education tax? Why? Because we all do.
Everyone paying their fair share is what our community is about and what makes us a community.
I also like the comment about the smell of the organics will be awful. What about your garbage now?
We get pick-up every week and on my garbage day the community doesn’t smell awful so why would it be worse with these bins.
It’ll actually be better because the green bins will keep all the food and smell inside as opposed to residents feeding the ravens on a weekly basis when they get into your bags that sit on the sidewalks now.
And in the winter all that organics will be frozen the first day and you’ll never notice it.
City staff just didn’t think this idea up one afternoon in their office.
They had open houses for citizens to come and have their say. The first of which was attended by 20 people.
They ran a pilot for the summer in 352 homes in a couple of communities in Airdrie and got feedback from those citizens that this was a good thing.
They published more articles about it in both papers and on the radio they did more studies and still it all seemed like a good thing.
Then finally when the project was a go and people found out they had to have the bin and had to pay $5 a month then “Oh my God the world is coming to an end and we don’t want these awful things. What a tax grab $5 a month, how dare they charge me this? It must all be going into Mayor Brown’s pocket. And now I have to buy special bags for the small bin too. There goes another $4 for 25 bags, which will only last me about four months.”
I would like to believe our elected officials when their staff has said this will cost less next year and hopefully even less the year after that once the costs have been recovered. If in two years, this starts to cost us $10 a month then there is an election coming up vote them out and run in the election yourself and make the change back to the old way.
Think of the alternative. The City could have done nothing and said we’ll keep doing everything the same way and then next year the City of Calgary said “sorry Airdrie but garbage disposal is going to cost more.” So City of Airdrie staff put forth an extra $5 a month on your bill. You might be mad but there is nothing we can do about it when the big guy to the south says the costs are going up. Then the next year another $5 and still we grumble a bit but we pay it.
If the City’s plan works out and at least 60 per cent of residents use this green bin then our garbage costs will go down and when Calgary says it is going to cost more well that’s OK because our usage is down about 40 per cent and we can absorb some of those costs more easily.
Even better is if the City says we only get one garbage bag a week and your garbage costs are cut in half as well. Wait a second, now my bill has gone down a bit, well thank you City staff for doing what we ask of you and trying your best to keep our expenses down.
Please let’s put a bit of trust in our City staff to do what we ask of them. Use the bins or don’t use them, they are here to stay.
