WELLINGTON COUNTY – Urban leaf and yard waste pickup in Wellington County may be proceeding slower than expected, however the head of solid waste services considers recent efforts to divert from landfills to be a huge success.
Das Soligo, manager of solid waste services, said there’s so much material being collected at the curbside that along with recent poor weather days pickup is proceeding more slowly than expected.
The large volume is ultimately a good thing, Soligo said, as it extends the service life of the one active landfill in Wellington County.
There were significant changes to the county’s curbside collection in 2020 with the introduction of the green bin compost collection along with expanded urban leaf and yard waste collection.
In previous years, Soligo said they would bury approximately 23,000 tons of waste each year but last year saw a large dip to under 19,000 tons.
“We’ve adjusted our landfill life projections by an additional five to 10 years based on what we’re seeing,” Soligo said. “If these trends continue then it’s probably closer to the 10 year mark.”
He explained this is fairly remarkable as the county is in a position of having landfill capacity to 2050.
“With these changes, we’re the envy of many municipalities around Ontario because of the amount of landfill capacity we have,” Soligo said.
After this last collection of the year, Soligo said the county will assess the program to look for ways to make it more efficient to avoid dragging the collection period out.
In the future, he suggested residents double check when their collection period is as he said it’s possible some residents may have put theirs out during the wrong period, therefore giving the appearance that collection is slower than it actually is.
To keep track of this, the schedule is on the County of Wellington solid waste services website or in the recycle coach app.
