Until this month, residents had been asked by the District to have their garbage and recycling at the curb by 8 a.m. That timing will shift an hour earlier starting on Monday, May 31.
At the end of this month, waste collection crews will begin their rounds at 7 a.m. due to an increase in the amount of garbage and recycling being left at curbside each week, which has increased the time needed for them to complete their routes, noted the District in a media release.
“It is less busy in the early morning and drivers won’t need to compete with traffic and parked cars in our urban areas,” said District staff. “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.”
The District encourages residents to download the free Muskoka Recycles app (on Google Play or the App Store) to receive live updates on collection delays and interruptions. The waste management customer service department continues to be available at [email protected] or 705-645-6764.
“We apologize for the continued waste collection delays and impacts some communities are experiencing,” added staff. “Our collection contractor, Waste Connections of Canada, continues to have labour challenges ultimately impacting the number of drivers and trucks on the road each day.”
Residents may see a different collection vehicle picking up recyclables or materials may go into one divided truck. From there, the material is taken to other locations for additional sorting.
If your waste was not collected, visit muskokarecycles.ca to learn when crews are returning to your neighbourhood or download the Muskoka Recycles mobile app.
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Hello John Murray. I’m sure that the collectors are hard working individuals. That’s why I am questioning the district’s decision to outsource. As soon as I hear that word, I visualize the workers being forced to take less than ideal wages and benefits. And I don’t like that. I want to know that everyone is making a living wage for the work that they do. It’s with little effort, that I see the amount of waste and recycle increasing because of extra residents here. My worry is that the workers will be forced to work very long days to handle this instead of better management of routes by the district. The district seems to have washed their hands of recycling. My other concern is about people who find it difficult to take the recycle materials back to their house if its not picked up on the scheduled day, as has happened in my neighbourhood since the change of service delivery. Now that’s two mornings that the recycle needs to be on curbside by 7 a.m.
Perhaps The Doppler should ask for a response from the District in relation to Nancy’s comments about outsourcing this service?
I can tell you this front-line service is a tough line of work to be in. Not many people could last a day on a truck as you are stop/starting at every property up to 1,000 times per day!
As residents we think our responsibility ends at our driveway in relation to recycling & waste collections.
Most people have no clue what happens after the collection has been completed as far as we are concerned “I did my bit” and the responsibility lies with the incumbent contractor to finish the job.
The financial infrastructure required to “start up” a new contract is immense and then you’ll need disposal options to deal with the product thereafter.
Perhaps Waste Connections of Canada should take Nancy out for “a day in the life of a recycling/waste collections driver/loader”
Nancy you may find your ‘collector’ to be an honest working person and a ‘special breed’ who enjoy this line of work in all weathers.
Recycle collection has been hit and miss for a number of weeks now. I wonder why we are outsourcing this service instead of having employees that work for our district. This trend toward outsourcing for the lowest costs, I suppose, speaks to the bottom line, and not to service. I was told by the recycle collector last week that they have 24 hours to complete pick-up. Hmmm. Now I wonder if that time starts at 7 a.m. and ends the next day at 7 a.m. It is actually really discouraging that our very wealthy district chooses to carrying on business in this manner.
I think our collection service is excellent and an hour earlier wont bother me much. My only problem is leaving the garbage out on the wrong tuesday and I cant find anyone to blame for that.
It does make one wonder though. Is the pickup a lot easier in the communities to the south now that a good number of their citizens are now staying up here?
But I’m ok with 7:00, though that wont help me with the wrong tuesday.
Keep safe folks.