A message from the District of Muskoka
The District of Muskoka is asking residents to set waste material at the curb a bit earlier on their scheduled collection day. Starting the first week of June, collection crews will begin curbside collection in our communities at 7:00 am.
We’re working closely with our contractor to find better and more efficient ways of getting your waste collected. We need your help! On your regular collection day, please set materials at the curb for 7:00 a.m.
It has become necessary for crews to begin earlier as we are managing more garbage and recycling each week and additional time is needed daily to complete routes. It’s less busy in the early morning and drivers won’t need to compete with traffic and parked cars in our urban areas. An early start will also help on hot weather days – our drivers collect garbage manually and it’s cooler in the morning to get a head-start on their day.
What to do if you think you were missed
We apologize to the communities that have experienced missed waste collection. We are working closely with our contractor, Waste Connections of Canada, as they continue to experience labour challenges, ultimately impacting the number of drivers and trucks on the road each day. We encourage our community to stay updated by downloading our Muskoka Recycles free mobile app – if delays in your neighbourhood are experienced, we’ll let you know and give you details on when trucks will return.
We’ve secured the services of an additional collection company to help fill empty routes to make sure our community has reliable, consistent collection each week. If you are experiencing missed collection or have collection concerns, please visit our website at www.muskokarecycles.ca and tell us more by completing our Missed Collection Form.
Muskoka Recycles
There are no changes to our blue box program. Recycling is collected weekly and can continue to be set out loose in blue boxes or open-top containers, or in clear or transparent plastic bags. Masks, gloves and other PPE goes in the garbage.
Some of the recycling trucks we are using to help fill empty routes have one loading area for our blue box material – rest assured that materials are still being sorted and recycled properly once unloaded from vehicles. We are working hard to make sure material is collected on time on your scheduled collection day.
For more information and to find out what’s recyclable in Muskoka and what goes where, visit our website at www.muskokarecycles.ca or download our Muskoka Recycles free mobile app.
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I fully understand the issues for the teams collecting garbage & recycling, but perhaps the powers that be should remember that as the communities grow with new subdivisions, commercial enterprises, etc., they will need to increase the number of routes, trucks and staff. I feel that many people will decide to put their trash, etc. at the curb the night before collection and therefore I wish to remind Muskoka that we live in Bear country and trash should never be put out ahead of collection time. Depending on annual natural foods available to Bears and other wildlife, they often come into urban areas where they can access food waste. Often then, the Bears are destroyed for no good reason. We’re increasingly taking away their habitat, so small wonder they come to us for food.