Georgian Bluffs is launching a community survey on how residents would like their garbage collected next year.
CAO Niall Lobley says the municipality will be randomly calling residents after council approved holding the survey during is meeting on April 9.
“The Township of Georgian Bluffs is looking for a new provider for household waste collection services and that will start in 2026. We have had two proponents interested in providing those services express interest and council has provided direction for us to go forward with one of those two to talk to them about what waste collection will look like when they take over in 2026,” says Lobley.
Lobley says the name of the company taking over garbage collection next year will be revealed in a couple of weeks, and while the full details have not been ironed out as of yet, he estimates the contract for garbage collection services to be between $800,000 and $900,000.
“We know we are likely to be moving towards a cart-based collection service, we don’t quite know what size of carts we will be providing as of yet. We are also looking at some other options like organic waste collection,” says Lobley.
This comes as the current contract with Waste Management is ending in 2026 and the collection of blue box recycling will fall on the province.
“The waste management landscape has really significantly shifted since 2016, and we are really facing a lot of pressures to reduce the amount of waste that goes to the landfill. That means we have to look at ways we encourage and support residents in finding other places for their waste to go,” says Lobley.
He anticipates the full details about changes to waste collection next year will be available this summer.
“Garbage is one of the biggest things a municipality provides to its residents and there is no shadow of a doubt that this is a very significant contract for the township and it is a very significant area service delivery by the municipality,” says Lobley. “So getting this right is important, but we also need to look at what it needs to be in four or five years time as this will be a lengthy contract.”
