Regina garbage collection changes in the works

Your garbage could start piling up.

If city council approves a bylaw change at its next meeting, garbage will be picked up once every two weeks starting in November.

The city currently offers a weekly service.

“It’s part of our review of expenses and trying to find savings, and other cities like Saskatoon actually have done this for a number of years,” Mayor Michael Fougere said.

It would affect both houses and apartments, he said.

“Certainly we hope it will encourage more recycling,” Fougere said.

The move is expected to save $132,000 in labour and fuel costs.

“They’re nuts. No, it’s not going to work. It’s every week now and look at the garbage in the alleys,” resident Donna Volk said.

“A lot of people use the recycle bins for garbage because the garbage is full, so in the winter, it’s going to be twice as bad,” Volk said.

Rob Deglau, a former inner-city community worker, said some of the older neighbourhoods already struggle with garbage collection.

“Now that we’re reducing it, we’re going to see excess garbage spilled all over the alleys. So that’s where our problem arrives. We haven’t even solved it now with the two bin system, and now we’re reducing service?” he said.

Deglau said if the city reduces garbage collection, it should consider increasing recycling or introducing composting bins.

“Back alleys are a disaster area. I’m actually disgraced to say this is in Regina. We should be working to say ‘how can we solve this?’ and help people make sure that refuse and garbage is picked up,” he said.

However, some people agreed there could be an upside.

“I imagine people will recycle more,” resident Rosanne Read said.

Fougere said council will evaluate the program in spring and expects weekly collection to resume over summer.

“We’re going to see how this works. If we find that people don’t have enough room over a two week period, we’ll look at the schedule and make changes at that time, but for the moment it seems like it should be able to work,” he said.

The city intends to offer weekly service over the Christmas period.