The days of black garbage bags in Muskoka are numbered.
During the latest District of Muskoka Engineering and Public Works Committee, councillors heard that residents will soon need to switch from black to clear plastic garbage bags. The move is intended to encourage residents to sort recycling and compostable materials appropriately, assist with the removal of hazardous items from the waste stream, and offer increased worker safety by enabling the garbage collectors to see the contents of the bags and avoid hazardous items.
Renee Recoskie, the Director of Waste Management and Environmental Services said the District plans to implement the policy as part of the next rate-supported budget process.
Councillor Robert Lacroix asked how staff will enforce the policy at waste transfer stations.
“Are we adding more staff or is this on the honour system?” he asked
Recoskie said staff are still working on the plans and will have more information in a report forthcoming to council in July.
Recoskie said waste collectors will likely not accept anything with more than roughly 10 per cent of contaminated contents.
Coun. Peter Kelley said implementing proper communication will be vital.
“We must avoid the perception ‘we just don’t trust you, and now we’re looking through your garbage’ because that’s how it’s going to be perceived,” said Kelley.
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I agree that switching to clear garbage bags could help improve recycling efforts and worker safety. It’s interesting that the district is working on ways to ensure compliance without making residents feel overly monitored. Thank you for sharing this update—proper communication will indeed be key to making this transition smooth and effective for everyone in Muskoka.
All this discussion may irrelevant since this week, I observed the garbage truck putting my recycling and my garbage into the same area of the truck. Unless I am misunderstanding what I saw, it seemed to me that they were both going to the same destination.
From someone who collects waste/recycle/organics, this clear bag thing doesn’t take effect tomorrow! Relax, its also nothing new, plenty of other municipalities have adopted this a long time ago, its the way the world is going get over it. As someone else commented above they also make different sizes, use your head and read the box before you buy! As far as your “personal effects”, we don’t care, its garbage! We see all kinds of stuff, some people are straight up disgusting by the way, but its a job, we aren’t rooting through your stuff, we don’t have time. We pick up literal TONS of material each day and make 100s of stops we don’t have time for that, and also get over yourselves you aren’t special. Put your ONE bag, TWO if you’re outside an organics area out, clean your recycle and use the damn green bins the District provides and you won’t have any issues, everyone makes it sound like its so damn complicated but its pretty simple if you pay even a little bit of attention, and if you don’t understand maybe ASK! Also, the people picking the materials up don’t make the rules, we’re trying to do our job so maybe don’t be a dick, thanks.
To Cassie Hartford and fan Miranda Thomas: Lots of responses here and Cassie makes good points. I’m sure we will all get adjusted to it all given time. Well not all, because some are recalcitrant and will never come round. Looking at our highways and sideroads today makes one wonder .
But I disagree that the onus/blame is entirely on the buyer, Our corporate citizens loot and pillage with wild abandon. Everyone notices that we are buying a lot of packaging that is only half or two thirds full. We are getting less for our dollar now, but packages don’t always get smaller. Producers won’t invest in making smaller packages, but charge you the same or more for it. It was once a pound of bacon or 454 grams. Now it is 375 grams in maybe the same size package? But a lot more packaging (about 15%) for the same amount of bacon. Pill containers hold hardly what they could. Everyone has a story about waste packaging.
Tell me that fast food outlets are going to have to separate all the refuse they produce. Maybe they will just refuse to accept the waste and it will all go on the streets and highways. Recycle boxes are full of the detritus from such places. I can’t imagine how people can spend that much on stuff that really doesn’t resemble actual food.
And then there is the biggest penis of them all. Cumon!! You know who I mean. Grinning from A to Z? Or something like that. But 600 million boxes a year!!! A good portion of which can be 2,3 or maybe 4X the size of the package inside. Any excess space can simply be stuffed with plastic bubble wrap.
We consumers will be required to do our best, as the refuse constabulary will be watching. But manufacturers and second party sellers must be required to do the same. It’s not just the little people causing the problem.
Cassie Hartford please explain why you repeat using plastic bags is alright? I do not agree with you at all. Not at all. I am sure everyone here etc. would like to hear your explanation after we have been told by extremely educated people to not use plastic ! I consider your use of plastic being dangerous to our world.
Cassie Hartford, you’re my hero. Thanks for demonstrating what a sensible, responsible, thoughtful adult can look like.
Seems there’s a lot of confused/uninformed people commenting here, and a lot of reason expressed as well. Particularly appreciated Cassie Hartford’s comments. Others said the same: a reasonable response to a huge problem. I live in an apartment and the number of people who have no clue how to recycle properly is appalling. Supposedly privileged, educated, people who, despite all sorts of education, can’t manage a few boxes, or bits of paper, and household waste. Our local and district governemnts are doing their best to reduce our communities impact on the world. We live in one of the most beautiful natural environments and yet many seem determined to destroy it. Each of us is responsible to reduce our waste as much as possible, but Muskokans are notorious for poor personal waste management. Let’s do better.
The bigger burn barrel comment is exactly what I worry about! I have seen people burning plastic. It has been expained that burning it does not make it disappear but it only changes form from solid to gas. Then it becomes a supercharged pollution in our atmosphere.
time for a bigger burn barrel
Any step towards more personal accountability for recycling and sorting is a welcome one!
I wish we could go further and limit the amount of plastic we could bring in our home….then we would not buy it and they may stop wrappimg and packaging EVERYTHING in plastic.
This is a baby step!
Forgetting about your waste as soon as it leaves your home is a luxury we can’t afford.
When garbage spills into our backyard i wonder who people will blame when they themselves have balked at the idea of any form of transparency.
I’ve never heard such sniveling, bitching, complaining and chewing !!!
Get over it. In my town we have had clear for years……no problem, stop.
The collection staff are far to busy to look in your bag. And yes, you can use a small coloured “privacy bag”
More people recycle as a result.
Good move District!
Huntsville has light pollution bylaws? If the clear bag content is enforced the same way then nothing will change.
This is crazy. .Lots of people (myself included) have lots of green garbage bags they have bought. The district or whatever genius came up with this should have to replace them with clear bags with the same amount of bags. Bag for Bag. Where do i get my free clear bags to replace the green ones I have bought?
John
It’s true that recycling is poor here in Muskoka. If you have material like pizza boxes, clean them first or the crows or bears might do it for you! Same with all recycling items. If I can do it so can you!
But please Muskoka provide enough time for us to use our stock of black bags and to advise local stores to stock your approved bags.
Better yet do a visit to Peel and see how garbage is done. Yeah yeah we can’t afford it….
Here we go again. Muskoka insisted on bear bins at $1000 per bin. However Muskoka does not have a mutual key to unlock the bin when the owner of the bin is not there to open it. The garbage can sit in there for weeks until the owner happens to be there on garbage day..unlucky cottagers.
Now they want clear plastic garbage bags used ,perhaps that helps to check for illegal items I suppose. Wait remember we can not and should not use plastic period as plastic is not good for the environment.
……..and so
Time to make changes to the decision makers in Muskoka.
I am also stuck on the word plastic..Declared an evil to our environment…
Muskoka you have real problems. Staff.
Thank you Cassie Hartford for a clear and appropriate answer to the complainers on this post. This has been the norm in other jurisdictions for a long time. There is a good reason for it, and yes, there is no perfect solution, so just deal with it.
As Mark Stea mentions, once this takes effect, the district should strongly discourage the sale of black garbage bags in the area. I did get burned the first time I showed up at the dump in Cape Breton with a pickup full of black garbage bags full of construction waste, and I had to drive to the nearest store and re-bag all the garbage before the dump would accept it.
Huntsville should do the same with outdoor lighting. I think all of the local stores still sell porch lights and security lights that do not meet our current light pollution bylaws. Why sell products that you are not allowed to use in this town? I am specifically looking at you Home Depot. 95% of your porch lights do not meet the requirements for Huntsville.
What a dilemma!! Do I conserve water or wash the garbage?
I’m fine with this as long as we are warned with enough time to use up the black bags we have.
Regarding Clear garbage bags. I do not see what the big deal is about putting your garbage into clear bags . Many people in the United State use clear garbage bags for years. It helps the sanitation people sort what needs to be in the landfill sights and what requires to be disposed of in a different manner. Our landfill sites are filling up rapidly and it’s because we don’t realize that some of our garbage needs to be disposed of differently. If you are worried about the famine products , they have opaque bags for them. If we all took a few minutes once a week to to think what needs to be disposed of properly, I think our landfill sites would last much longer. We recycle plastics and glass products what about our regular garbage , it only take a few minutes for us to sort it out . Let be a little more conscious of our environment . Things are not getting any better. If we all do our part in sorting things would be a lot better for all of us . That’s the way I See it .
I can live with it , however I would appreciate some hints/suggestions on what I can do with My several unopened , sale purchased black garbage bags ( be nice ) rather than a lot of nonsense about privacy and viewing the contents of someone’s garbage . Nobody , let alone a garbage pickup person , is going to wade through your trash . Perhaps you could consider dogs , crows and raccoons as worse threat !
Happy tossing !
Why are so many people upset about this? In my locality (Dufferin County), we have been using clear bags for several years. All of the concerns I have seen in the previous responses were also raised when clear bags were proposed in my area. To my knowledge, none of the concerns ever came to fruition. Lets get with it folks, and do the right thing in regards to disposal of our residential waste.
Ill stop buying the blck bags now and do hope they giv us time to use thm up so noone has to throw out their old blck bags….i kno most of us prob hav a box or 2 (or more) in storage.
And ya, jst hope they can tell the diffrnc at a glanc and dont reject any tht are actually legit
You know what needs transparency? The actual facts on what happens to all the material that is put in the recycling stream.
Data shows that the MAJORITY of what goes into recycling bins ends up in landfill and with plastics 90% ends up in landfill.
The move to separating computable food waste was a good one. This clear bags thing feels like a diversion — a greenwashing move by bureaucrats.
Tell us actual facts about what is really going on in our waste, show nresults before instituting more superficial nonsense.
The reduction in bag allowance has been effective (in our household) for increasing recycling and green bin use.
I would warn against making things MORE complicated or challenging for Muskoka ratepayers, as our property taxes are already high in some of our municipalities,for relatively few services.
This is the type of decision that should be made by our elected reps, not by a district employee. There should be a vote in council to decide this. The way your rep votes should be published, that way you can decide to vote for that person next election if you choose.
I can tell the majority of people complaining here aren’t very educated with how recycling and clear garbage bags actually work.
I have lived in an area for over a year now that does not do curbside garbage/recycling pick-up and requires clear garbage bags at our local dump.
To answer a few of the complaints I repeatedly saw above;
– they make and sell clear garbage bags in all shapes and sizes. This is for everyone upset thinking they will have industrial sized clear bags for their small bathroom trash cans. Simply buy the smaller size.
-for the women who are worried about their feminine hygiene products; you are allowed to have an opaque sanitary bag tied and stashed within the clear garbage bag you’re bringing out to the curb. Trust me, no waste collector is trying to scope out your dirty sanitary napkins…
-to the guy who mentioned rinsing out bloody meat trays; yeah, that’s exactly what you’re meant to do and it’s kind of sad that it’s taken until now for you to realise this.
It seriously blows my mind how people are responding to this in this day and age. Do none of you realise the garbage crisis going on in the world?
Yes, it takes some getting used to, but, it’s just a learning curve, like anything else.
This is not for the waste collectors to spy on you and hold you accountable – it’s for YOU to hold you accountable and if some of you think that dumping your garbage in parks or on the side of the road is the solution – well that says more about you than it does about them.
It’s called ‘personal responsibility and accountability’, try having some.
North America is absolutely atrocious when it comes to garbage and recycling and we are too comfortable with sending it off to the rest of the world for them to take the brunt of it all while we foster an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude.
This isn’t on anyone else but you. Educate yourselves, it’s not that difficult.
Did I not read somewhere that 75-80% of garbage/recycle ends up in the landfill anyways?
Will the garbage police be riding with each garbage truck?
I do not appreciate having my entire street seeing/knowing my medical condition by what they can see in a clear garbage bag! I do have the right to privacy!
What nerd came up with this brain storm?
Dear Cindy,
Clear bags come in all sizes. From small kitchen bags to large thick contractor bags. Be not afraid.
What bag do I put complainers in?
I can’t fill a whole garbage bag in a week. Now I’m supposed to buy special large clear bags that it may take 4 weeks to fill or throw away almost empty. More plastic than how mine is now. This move defeats my budget and efforts. More expense, more waste
As a female maybe I don’t want my famine products out for the world to see. Is just one reason why this should not be allowed. There are many things people deem private that goes into their garbage.
Lots of people seem to be confused around your garbage and privacy…you don’t have any folks. Don’t put things you don’t want people seeing in the garbage or recycling because nowhere in this service provision is your material guaranteed to be destroyed or your privacy maintained. The onus is on you, the individual, to care for any of your own sensitive or private information or materials.
Also, Canadians generate garbage at way above average rates. The only way to get people to actually change their behaviours around waste is to make them pay for it (garbage limit) and enforcement (clear bag). You don’t like it? That’s the point. But of course this will be met with many disgruntled Muskoka residents saying they’ll just burn it all…take that environment I live in!
Last but not least, when clear bag rules are on the horizon (see all the other Ontario municipalities that do this), local suppliers start stocking clear bags in higher volumes than black bags. Also I’d bet you all shop online anyways so don’t treat not seeing clear bags in the store as some sort of barrier.
A very stupid idea. Prepare for a lot of midnight dumping of black garbage bags in parks, along side roads and other quiet out of the way places which will result in animals tearing them apart and spreading the garbage and pet litter all over. Please post the phone numbers of whoever thought of this idea so people can call them to come and clean up the messes after this happens.
More trash at the side of the road or ditch. Great plan Muskoka.
A joke. Your garbage pickup goes by so quickly. Examining the garbage is not possible. You need three times as many trucks and employees in order to do same. One bag of garbage per week for a large family is also a joke. Try serving the people who pay your wages in exorbitant tax collections instead of making their lives more difficult on a daily basis.
So if we use clear begs for our recycling and clear begs for garbage, how is the garbage person picking up at the curb supposed to tell the difference between the 2?
This is brilliant! It’s about time people are held accountable for what they put in their trash. In response to Mel’s comment above, regarding greasy pizza boxes…these are eligible to be included in your food waste so should not be going into the garbage.
First and foremost, the idea of someone examine my trash is repulsive and may violate privacy.
So where will we buy clear trash bags for bathroom waste,kitchen waste,laundry room waste, or any area that uses non standard bags?
By the way ladies, you want the trash guy examine your used personal products?
To the people that generated this new rule, do you rinse and dry out bloody meat tray wrap, do you know corn cobs don’t really compost( I have one my grandmother started composting in 1937), we are told not to put broken glass in the recycling but try taking it out in a flimsy clear bag, when these bags break at curbside will the waste management employee clean it up?
How about industrial and construction waste, who’s sorting that?
This is not the solution, whoever thought this up is not in reality.
In order for the District of Muskoka Council to achieve its long-stated goal of significantly reducing the amount of recyclable materials going into the landfill, staffing at waste transfer sites has needed to be increased in support of achieving this very important, worthy goal for quite some time. Walk the talk…
If we are directed not to use black bags than the surrounding stores shouldn’t be selling them then. Signed what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
And the kitchen bags for people with garbage cans that cant keep a huge clear trash bag filling up with stuff?
Plus a lot of garbage cant be recycled like greasy pizza boxes. More garbage is going to and up in recycling bins because people will be afraid their garbage will be skipped.
I feel as this is an invasion of my privacy
I suppose that I’m going to use my 250 remaining black garbage bags as kitchen catchers and now they will be double wrapped into the clear bags.
This is utterly ridiculous.