The county’s solid waste services committee has supported a staff recommendation not to pursue extended hours at its waste facilities.
“We don’t receive a lot of requests or complaints from the public about the topic,” County of Wellington manager of solid waste services Das Soligo told the committee during its meeting Tuesday.
Staff had been asked to look into extending hours of operation at waste facilities after a councillor reported in January receiving feedback that hours were too restrictive.
But Soligo said county staff had not had similar feedback.
“In the last year, we logged every email we received, every phone call we received,” he said, noting staff track the nature of the communications.
In more than 7,200 emails and calls, “none were complaints per se about the hours of operation,” said Soligo.
There were three calls dealing loosely with hours, but they weren’t complaint-based, he said.
Soligo spoke about the reasons staff are not recommending extending hours, saying it would require a significant amount of work and analysis to cost it out properly and to come up with the right operational schedule.
Currently, the county operates six waste facilities – five waste transfer stations that are open three days per week, either Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, or Wednesday Thursday and Saturday, and the Riverstown landfill, which is open five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday.
Each site operates from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the days it is open.
Extending the hours would not only involve the question of whether to add extra shifts or adjust working hours, but also would mean installing lighting, and other possible costs, such as additional snow removal, Soligo said.
He listed a number of projects the solid waste services department has on the go for 2025, including the blue box transition, seeking leachate treatment options for Riverstown’s leachate, expanding waste diversion, and looking into the next curbside collection contract.
“There’s a number of projects on the go,” Soligo said, noting pursuing extended hours would take time and attention away from those projects.
His report, included in the meeting agenda package, suggested deferring the matter to a time when there is either a further direction from council or a notable increase in inquiries from the public related to extending hours.