Opinion

Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION

Trash talk is now limited to four days

By: Uncredited

Monday, Sep. 10, 2012 | Comments: 1

“Who can take your trash out? Stomp it down for you?

Shake the plastic bag and do the twisty thingy too?

The Garbage Man! Oh, the Garbage Man can.”

— “The Simpsons”

No doubt there will be some grumbling from unhappy Brandon residents now that the city has enacted a new garbage bin bylaw that will change collection days to four days per week and force the removal of bins out of back lanes after pickup.

As the Sun has reported, garbage collection will take place from Tuesday to Friday as of October. The new bylaw was intended to deal with confusion that resulted under the current five-day pickup cycle, when holidays pushed some collection days back for nearly a week around Christmas time.

With the new system, the only holidays that will impact service are Remembrance Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day and then garbage days will advance by one day with Saturday pickups making up the difference. Monday holidays such as Labour Day will never be affected and crews will apparently work through Good Friday as well.

“The huge advantage to going to a four-day collection cycle will be the fact that a resident’s pickup day will only be minimally affected by long weekends and civic holidays,” Ian Broome, the city’s public works director, said. “A four-day cycle is also advantageous to the City of Brandon because it means that Monday will now be a consistent maintenance day for our sanitation trucks.”

The fact that city crews will now have to make up missed garbage days on Saturdays and Good Friday will likely be small comfort to residents who have gotten used to leaving their trash and recycle bins in back lanes across the city. The new bylaw will now force those who get their bins picked up from the back lane to bring them back onto their property. Residents will now have a 24-hour time limit to bring their bins back out of the lane and they won’t be able to put them out any sooner than 12 hours prior to collection day.

Folks who don’t move their back lane bins will get an initial warning, but if they remain obstinate and continue to leave their bins in the lane, they could face fines of up to $1,000.

For those residents who are physically unable to move their garbage bins out to their front yard or back lane every week, the city offers a set-out, set-back service for free to those who supply an appropriate medical note indicating there is no one at their home able to do it. The service is also available to those residents with homes that have certain geographic barriers that may present an issue when trying to meet the requirements of the city’s disposal bylaw.

Frankly, we welcome the changes to Brandon’s sanitation bylaw. As Broome said, too often empty or half-empty carts are left in the laneway and crews tip them when they don’t need to. As well, several folks don’t follow proper refuse and recycling disposal guidelines, and the bins themselves are often vandalized or damaged.

And the sight of row upon row of unkempt trash and recycling bins down back lanes does nothing to enhance the look of this city. The bylaw simply matches what people with front street pickup already do.

Though the new garbage rules may elicit some trash talk next month — likely from city folk who don’t pay much attention to the news or city updates and who may be surprised by the changes — we believe this is a good way to clean up the city.

No pun intended.

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition September 10, 2012

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Posted by:Andy9

September 10, 2012 at 9:18 AM

Good luck getting the apartment people in my area to stop leaving their bins out behind my back fence. If they didn't care before, will they (never mind the absentee landlord) care much more now?

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“Who can take your trash out? Stomp it down for you?

Shake the plastic bag and do the twisty thingy too?

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“Who can take your trash out? Stomp it down for you?

Shake the plastic bag and do the twisty thingy too?

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