Editor's note: The following does not apply to the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia, which manage their own waste collection.
NEWS RELEASE
COUNTY OF SIMCOE
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Starting Dec. 4, 2023, the County of Simcoe is adjusting its curbside waste collection zones to accommodate the province’s shift to a new recycling model (details on this new model are shared below).
Starting in December, all households and businesses serviced by the county will be placed in either Zone 1 or Zone 2 for curbside cart collections, as well as all special collection programs (such as leaf and yard waste).
How this impacts County households? What changes?
- Households in Zone 2 only, approximately half of the county’s households (not necessarily separated by municipal borders), will see a change in their cart set-out rotation during the week of Dec. 4-7, 2023.
- Collection in Zone 1 will not be impacted by this change to the rotation. Simply roll out your carts as usual on your regular day
- Collection in Zone 2 will be impacted temporarily as these households transition to their new bi-weekly rotation schedule
- Zone 2 will have two consecutive recycling collection weeks (Nov. 27-30 and Dec. 4-7).
- Zone 2 will skip one week of garbage collection (week of Dec. 4-7) as they switch into their new cart rotation. As a result of the skipped garbage collection week, households are entitled to set out one free untagged bag of garbage, placed next to their garbage cart, on their new garbage collection week of Dec. 11-14
- There are no changes to collection days regardless of your zone
What stays the same?
- Continue to use your carts
- Your collection day of the week does not change in either zone. Keep rolling carts out on your regular collection day but note that the type of carts to set out on alternating weeks may change
- Bi-weekly cart rotation (one week is garbage and organics collection, the next week is recycling and organics collection) does not change but your rotation may adjust depending on your zone (as outlined above)
How do you determine your Zone?
- The Simcoe County Collects app is updated with new zone information. The app is a helpful and convenient tool for all County of Simcoe Waste programs. App reminders and notifications will also be sent during your collection week. Simply download the app and enter your address and you will receive your upcoming schedule indicating what carts to put out on which dates.
- All known addresses in Zone 2 received a direct mailer in early November notifying them of the collection week rotation (note that mailers may have been sent to your landlord if you rent/lease)
- The County’s Waste Collection Calendar was mailed in November to all county households and includes the new zone information
- Visit simcoe.ca/collectionschange to view our static map (also included with this news release) or view our interactive GIS mapping system
- Contact the County at [email protected] or 1-800-263-3199 Helpful Tip: Households may wish to place out all three carts (two feet apart from each other) during the week of Dec. 4. Our collection vehicles will collect only the correct carts for your zone that week; this will assist residents in identifying their proper rotation going forward. Organics carts will continue to be collected weekly; however, residents in Zone 2 will notice that their recycling and garbage carts will switch weeks moving forward.
Why is this change in schedule necessary for some households?
With the Ontario Government's implementation new producer responsibility legislation, Circular Materials Ontario (CMO), the organization acting on behalf of producers to set up the new blue cart collection system in Simcoe County, has contracted their own transfer facility to transfer blue cart recycling material only. This means that the county's cart collection trucks will be required to visit two different drop off/transfer locations, one for recycling (managed by CMO) and one for organics (managed by the county).
To avoid larger impacts to collections cycles, the county has introduced new zones and altered the cart collection set out rotation for Zone 2 households (as noted above). Moving to standardized zones will also provide greater consistency for residents and streamlined communications for all waste collection programs.
If you have questions about this change, email our Service Simcoe Contact Centre at [email protected] or call on 1-800-263-3199. We encourage residents to take advantage of our Simcoe County Collects app to have access to a personalized collection calendar and waste notifications.
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