WELLINGTON NORTH – Township of Wellington North council have forwarded a motion to the county’s solid waste services advocating for residents to have tipping fees waived at the Riverstown Landfill for leaf and yard waste.
Councillor Dan Yake brought this motion forward earlier in July but it was unanimously passed at Monday night’s council meeting.
In a follow-up phone call, mayor Andy Lennox explained that the township used to run leaf and yard waste pick-up for many years but transitioned to the county-wide program. He said he has heard from residents that they have felt service level has dropped.
“Their program is different from what we’ve had in the past and the number of pick-up dates is less,” Lennox said. “So we’re getting feedback from residents that are looking for other opportunities to dispose of their leaf and yard waste without sending it to the landfill and paying the associated tipping fees.”
Lennox said having another avenue to dispose of yard waste would be helpful for residents because they can do it on their own schedule.
“If they have material that accumulates at a different time and they want to dispose of it right away they can simply load them up and take them to the landfill site,” Lennox said. “Ideally they would be segregated in the landfill and sent off for further processing.”
Rural residents, who have never had curbside leaf and yard waste pick-up, would be able to use this program as well.
According to Lennox, solid waste services has had discussions on waiving tipping fees county-wide but Wellington North council is advocating for their residents first.
“We’re letting the county know that we think this is something that would be beneficial,” Lennox. “Council widely agreed that this would be something that would be beneficial to residents and we would encourage the county to implement such a program.”
