There was a lot of resistance, but according to the District of Muskoka, since the clear bag program was officially implemented at the curb in March 2025, there has been a marked increase in waste diversion.
The District has seen a 38 per cent decrease in the tonnage of garbage collected at the curb to date compared to 2024. It has also seen a 99 per cent increase in the tonnage of green bin organics collected.
“When the idea to go to clear bags was brought to District council, I remember saying, ‘Well, it’s weird, but it works.’ Turns out it worked really, really well here in Muskoka,” noted District of Muskoka Chair Jeff Lehman.
“I know some people had legitimate questions about things like privacy and wondered whether it would make a difference, but the numbers show this has been a runaway success.”
The clear garbage bag requirement was also recently introduced at transfer stations and at Muskoka’s only landfill, and Lehman said that it has also been incredibly successful.
“We only have our own residents to thank for that – this is an accomplishment of the community, as more than 80 per cent of transfer station customers are using clear bags already in the first few weeks of the switchover, and almost everyone now in curbside pickup,” he noted.
“Here’s why it’s important,” added Lehman. “Every additional year of life we can get out of our existing landfill is worth millions of dollars in taxpayer money. Even a few years of increased capacity is worth a fortune, due to the costs of finding, acquiring, and building a new landfill. And by throwing less garbage in the ground, we are making a whole series of positive environmental impacts, including reducing carbon emissions and, of course, reducing pollution.
“So my message to Muskokans is thank you for making the change – it worked – and both our pocketbook and our kids will thank us too,” he said.
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… yeah we’re all just going to the dump our selfs now, how bout you just take the trash and stop wasting tax dollars on dumb programs.
Anyone that watches news knows that our recycling programs are mostly greenwashing. How much of our recycling ends up in a landfill somewhere else in the country or is shipped offshore? Our garbage problem needs to be solved by the people creating it. I suspect that most of the packaging used in Ontario isn’t recycled, but we still put it in our blue boxes.
Yes but we’ve also added a huge amount of things to the recyclable list that would have been put in the garbage. Had nothing to do with clear bags lol I’m sure most the recycling will end up in the trash down the line as there is no end user for most of the stuff.
The problem is that we produce so much waste from our consumption due to our modern urban lifestyle choices and so we need to put it somewhere it will not cause toxic effects to our soil, water and air and so to ourselves. Plastic is a ubiquitous forever toxic byproduct of our fossil fuel industry. The clear Plastic garbage bags may be helping to delay new landfill costs, but are not a real solution to our waste problems. You can get mad about the district measures, and other politics but it doesn’t help.
Calling this a success is pure propaganda. It’s textbook cynical spin and narrative framing by six-figure-socialists who have caused a massive economic loss and socialized it onto producers forcing them into a new parallel system. This is why Canada’s economy is broken. Massive L’s are sold to low information voters as wins by political bad actors and lazy media.
Turning broad management failures around on stakeholders while claiming a victory on a narrow cherry picked policy is a slap in the face.
After 40–50+ years of legacy rate/taxpayers and small businesses (stakeholders) funding this system, services have been slashed, bins removed, and waste hauled farther at higher cost. Tax increases (well above the rate of inflation and CPI) in Muskoka with none of the services are consistently coming in at levels over and above major centres like Toronto.
If responsibility was “uploaded” and efficiencies gained, where did the money go? Taxes increased and services were slashed. What exactly have ratepayers been funding through decades of Sunshine List level salaries if not planning and stewardship?
Why wasn’t an alternative site purchased decades ago (or any year since) when land was cheap?
Why are we funnelling contracts to companies like GFL who move head offices to Miami, exporting decision-making and value out of Ontario—then blaming local ratepayers for the failures of staff and council whose only job is to manage the system they are charging taxes for and to liaise with the province and feds for better and better deals.
Again if waste services were uploaded and massive service cuts imposed, where are the savings actually reflected—lower taxes, improved infrastructure, or reduced debt?
Because ratepayers are seeing none of the above, only a visible growth in council and staff salaries, staffing bloat, and policy drift metastasizing, while ratepayers are told to accept less and pay more.
This failure belongs to the CAO, compliant committee chairs, and a supine council that keeps approving staff-driven policies while blame is heaped on stake holders, services are cut and bureaucratic salaries keep growing. All of this nonsense is sold under the guise of fake “green” policy, the same idiotic political religion/cashcow that is flushing Canada’s economy down the toilet.
Maybe another new hire, fee, performative land acknowledgement and or EV charging station nobody wants, will fix everything.
except we’re still only recycling about 9% globally. the only success i see is that govt’s did the wealthys bidding and downloaded recycling costs onto consumers.
The other unmentioned but very significant improvement is in regards to waste collector safety. With residents using clear bags, collectors can visually see if there are any hazardous materials in the trash. Things like needles, Broken glass or ceramics, batteries, and other electronics are a huge source and cause of injuries and fires in the Waste industry. Kudos to the District for making this effective and common-sense change!
INCINERATION IS THE BEST SOLUTION…HI TEMP, LOW EMISSION TECHNOLOGY EXISTS AND CAN CREATE ELECTRICAL POWER!
No issue with the switch, really who cares if the bags are pink or green.
But the quoted stats tell other stories possibly.
For example, how much unrecoverable trash is being put into recycling streams?
Is anyone looking at that? I suspect not. That means we simply diverting trash from Muskoka and shipping it elsewhere. The same may be happening with biodegradable waste. Any stats for that?
The new Ontario recycling initiative seems very worthwhile. But more clarity is needed on what can be recycled. More up-to-date technology is needed, more intensive awareness publicity,
As well there needs to be greater collocation with food packers to reduce waste,