The lid’s off changes to curbside collection in Barrie.
Councillors heard a presentation Wednesday night about the wide-ranging changes, which begin May 1.
Many collection days for garbage and organics will shift, pet waste goes in the green bin, keeping it out of the landfill, yard waste day lasts as long as a week and the city is getting out of the recyclables game.
Changes to collection will affect about 58,000 single- and multi-family residences, and approximately 4,000 commercial units in Barrie, which are eligible for waste services.
Stephanie Mack, the city’s associate director of waste management and environmental sustainability, presented Changes Coming to the Curb on Wednesday, setting the stage for change.
“The key message of the evening … we are going to have a new waste collection schedule,” she said. “There will be about 10,000 properties affected by this. Check your schedule.”
To do this, residents can visit Barrie.ca/
The changes begin when the existing waste collections contract with Waste Connections expires April 30, 2024, and the new contract with the Emterra Group begins the next day, May 1 — an eight-year deal with options for two one-year extensions.
Barrie’s new collection contract will use manual collection from May 1, 2024 until Sept. 7, 2025. The next day, Barrie will make the transition to automated collection, with the use of carts or bins for all materials except yard waste. The carts will be provided to residents.
Yet sending yard waste to the curb on Monday of the collection week that lasts until Friday, with pick-up every other week, April to November, is sending the most questions councillors’ way as May 1 looms.
“We’re all hearing the same concerns,” said Coun. Bryn Hamilton.
“It’s all about the yard waste we are going to get our questions,” said Coun. Craig Nixon.
What happens if the weather is bad, the yard waste bags get too wet and deteriorate, for example, and can’t hold the material?
If residents’ yard waste isn’t picked up until Friday, won’t they just put it out Wednesday or Thursday?
Barrie’s recycling program is also changing, starting May 1, 2024. On that date, residential recycling — blue and grey boxes — will no longer be collected by the city.
A not-for-profit organization called Circular Materials will be financially responsible for collecting and managing residential recycling in Barrie. At this time, there are no anticipated changes to the materials residents can recycle — so still paper and containers.
Emterra has also been contracted by Circular Materials to collect residential recycling materials. They are to be collected the same day as garbage and organics.
This change comes as part of a provincial regulation whereby all Ontario municipalities are transitioning to a producer responsibility model. Companies, or producers, which supply recyclable materials will be responsible for the collection and recycling of these materials.
Other changes effective this May 1 are that some collection days will change to balance the routes, there will be no shift in collection due to holidays, except Christmas and New Year’s Day.
“Victoria Day will be the real test of this,” Mack said.
Also as of May 1, pet waste, including plant-based kitty litter, can be put into green bins.
“It sounds like a small thing,” Mack said. “Curbside garbage is 18 per cent pet waste. We can save 3,600 tons (of pet waste) at the landfill every year.”
“It’s all about the sustainability of our landfill,” said Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson.
Curbside collection will be expanded to eligible private roadways and laneways. The city is working to assess eligible properties. This service will be phased in, and the city will contact eligible property managers after May, 2024.
Unspecified changes are also coming to the collection schedule and frequency for multi-residential buildings of six units or more.
For residents in the Downtown BIA (Business Improvement Area), there will be daily — Monday to Friday — collection of garbage and organics, with no change to weekly limits in this area. BIA residential recycling will be collected by Circular Materials on Tuesdays.
Barrie businesses/institutions must register to receive the current level of curbside waste collection service from the city, with the introduction of a new waste collection contract on May 1. The city is asking for applications by April 15. This intake will continue until the change to carts in September 2025.
And the changes naturally come with a cost. Barrie’s solid waste collection costs were projected in 2023 to more than double during the next five years. The forecast is costs rising from $6 million last year to $13.57 million in 2027 for collecting garbage, organics, recycling, yard waste and batteries.
The city is acknowledging the difficulty for residents with these changes, as there will be a special collection day May 3, when about 7,000 city households will get garbage and organics pick-up, to bridge the scheduling and routes gap.
Impacted residents in Wards 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 will receive a letter from the city about May 3.
“There is going to be a lot of change in behaviour,” said Coun. Sergio Morales.
These changes all stem from provincial programs.
In June 2016, the province enacted its Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act (RRCEA), which required the development of a strategy for a waste-free Ontario.
