City Tries to Tackle Garbage Problem With Humour

Friday, April 04, 2008 10:29 AM

Prince George, B.C. - The City of Prince George is trying to tackle a garbage problem with humour.

Too many residents are overstuffing their garbage cans.

The City calls it “Over-Flow-It is” and is calling on residents to “stop the outbreak”.

Sean LeBrun, Supervisor of Solid Waste Services says the over-flow is having a negative impact "This is resulting in additional waste going into the landfill as well as garbage being strewn around neighbourhoods.”

"It’s easy to reduce the amount of garbage we put to the curb each week, one simple step is to recycle your paper and cardboard products. It’s easy to do and would make a world of difference", says LeBrun.

At the very least, residents who don’t have a cart that is large enough can exchange it for a larger one by contacting the City. LeBrun says there have been containers with six bags piled on top, "It's amazing how creative people can be".

With spring clean up about ready to go, LeBrun says it is important to get the message out now.

Those who have a small container at a cost of $49.50 for six months and are over stuffing them, are saving themselves the $12.92 extra they should be paying for a medium sized container. Medium container over stuffers are avoiding paying the extra $13.18 they should be paying for a large container.

The current 6 month costs per container are:

Small $49.60
Medium $62.42
Large $75.60

While the City is starting off this campaign with humour, no one will be laughing if the residents continue to overstuff.

Overstuffed cans will be tagged and provided with information on the location of the nearest recycling depot. LeBrun says about 200 residents have already ben "tagged" and so far, the offenders have not repeated the activity.

The next steps will be much more serious and will include leaving the carts behind for the homeowner to take to the landfill or transfer station themselves.

If the City has to come back to deal with the trash, the responsible homeowner could face a fine of up to $75.

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Posted on Friday, April 04, 2008 10:29 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: owl on April 4 2008 10:47 AM

And those who understuff???????

And those who do not put it out every week?????

I want to know since I am one of those ....

Big Brother is watching.

If they want to tag, maybe that is the red tag?????

And how about those who compact garbage versus those who simply put empty containers in without crushing them.

Posted by: owl on April 4 2008 10:50 AM

"Those who have a small container at a cost of $49.50 for six months and are over stuffing them, are saving themselves the $12.92 extra they should be paying for a medium sized container. Medium container over stuffers are avoiding paying the extra $13.18 they should be paying for a large container"......

And those who are understuffing and recycling, but got a bigger container for those occasional heavy party weekends should be paying for a smaller container.

Posted by: metalman on April 4 2008 11:33 AM

And how much does it cost the city to police the offenders who are perpetrating this outrageous crime? To drive around and put stickers and notices on the containers belonging to the habitual offenders.
With tongue firmly in cheek, I remain,
metalman.

Posted by: Death to Socialism on April 4 2008 11:37 AM

Pretty lame attempt at humor.

Posted by: zoopdingle on April 4 2008 11:43 AM

They charge for the container? I did not know that. Time to privatize.

Posted by: owl on April 4 2008 11:44 AM

"This is resulting in additional waste going into the landfill as well as garbage being strewn around neighbourhoods.�

Let�s tackle one �problem� at a time.

Overstuffing garbage cans is not �additional waste�. Getting a larger can certainly won�t solve an �additional waste� problem. All it does is ding those who supposedly add this �additional waste�.
The waste is the waste. It is a product of the activities and resulting actions people in that household take. Garbage bin size and additional charges for larger sized bins will not change that when people are not concerned about where money is spent or how much is spent.

Why is this City�s government so slow on the uptake when it comes to serious recycling? Got too much stuff in the land fill? Dumping fees too high? Solution is to collect more money from the population?

Does anyone seriously think that this will reduce the amount of garbage? Where has that worked?

I think we need municipal operated curbside recycling and/or a sorting plant. The money is better spent on that than larger bins in my opinion.

http://www.ci.cerritos.ca.us/citygov/publicworks/recycle.html
http://www.stewardshipontario.ca/pdf/News/2007/london_mrf_aug2007.pdf

Solve the first part of the "problem" and the second will generally take care of itself.

Posted by: owl on April 4 2008 11:49 AM

"They charge for the container?"

yes, it is not even rent to own. It is a license to use. So, you are not even allowed to drill a hole in the bottom so that any fluids drain. Gotto put the bin on its side and use the hose to drain it out ..... thereby using more water ......

Then again, maybe that is why the biohazard sticker. Maybe one should be bringing the bin in on occasion to the collection for biohazard materials so that they can clean it out. LOL

Posted by: editor on April 4 2008 12:35 PM

To all who asked about the sticker; the City says the "tags" it puts on a garbage can are the type one might see on a door knob (if you missed a delivery)but slipped around the handle, so it can't be missed. So the red tag on the side of the neighbour's can is not related to "overstuffing".

Elaine Macdonald
publisher

Posted by: sunshine on April 4 2008 12:53 PM

It frustrates me that a lot of people in Prince George are too lazy to recycle. Part of it could be that people don't know where to recycle cardboard and paper etc. (I know I had to ask a few people when I moved here where to recycle). I know of people in PG who are too lazy to even take their pop and beer bottles back for money. A curbside recycling pickup would be the best option for Prince George to solve this problem. Why is it that smaller towns in BC have curbside recycling but Prince George doesn't?

Posted by: heidi1555 on April 4 2008 1:49 PM

My neighbor has her recyclables picked up. Not sure exactly what they pick up and what she is left with at home.
Hart Drug Mart has a setup of bins in behind.

Found this chart: "WASTE REDUCTION DIRECTORY" Every category has a phone number.

http://www.rdffg.bc.ca/Services/Environment/Solid_waste/Brochures/wstreddir.pdf

Posted by: northman on April 4 2008 2:57 PM

"It�s easy to reduce the amount of garbage we put to the curb each week, one simple step is to recycle your paper and cardboard products. It�s easy to do and would make a world of difference", says LeBrun."
-Can someone get a picture of city hall's dumpster and what is going in it? How much carboard paper bottles ect are in it ect. Time to start auditing our so called leaders to see if they indeed are doing the same thing themselves.

Posted by: singlemom on April 4 2008 3:50 PM

Check PGRH as well. All paper is thrown in the garbage, along with shredded materials.

Posted by: vocer on April 4 2008 4:48 PM

If we had a full blown recycling program in the city. Curbside???

Posted by: doneright on April 4 2008 5:28 PM

You ever watch how fast these guys driving the garbage trucks dump your garbage I had 1 guy dump it so quick that it was still a 1/3 full when he set it down. Needless to say I had him dump it again.
But when these garbage trucks were first introduced the city said it was going to save us money and no loss of jobs.
Lied to again.

Posted by: tuatkaan on April 4 2008 5:36 PM

I'm one of those, who has a house in town
and because of renovations we can not
live in it. It will be probably 6-12
months before we can move back to our
home. We paid and paying for the city
container (the largest one), but now
also have a rented bin for the renovation.
Until the big bin is there, maybe once
every two month we have something for
the city's garbage truck.
No one talks at the city hall about all
those properties where no one lives for
months, so no garbage to be collected
even if is prepaid and keep paying for it.
How about some refund?...
The local "governors" are just looking
for another excuse for another source
of cash.

Posted by: rightwing on April 4 2008 8:02 PM

well we for one dont overstuff ever! We prefer to burn all our garbage. Household garbage, food, batteries, old computers, tires, shoes, and just generally anything we want. In the winter months we replace burning burch wood for our garbage. You know to save on heat:p

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on April 4 2008 9:46 PM

Just burn the paper and plastics, the rest goes in the dump.

Posted by: jonnypg on April 5 2008 8:06 AM

you guys are too funny!

Posted by: diplomat on April 5 2008 10:33 AM

"Hart Drug Mart has a setup of bins in behind."

That could cause a bad pain in the butt.

:-)

Posted by: ShannanigansB on April 5 2008 10:53 AM

I think the city should save their time and money on this "humorous campaign" and put it into establishing a curbside recycling program to be used along with garbage pickup. Thats how you stop overflowing garbage cans, not by creating more trash by handing out flyers and tags....where are these gonna end up? I imagine in the overstuffed garbage cans....

Posted by: owl on April 5 2008 12:56 PM

But by handing out flyers and tags it keeps the economy going ... more tree cutting, more paper production, more driving around to deliver, more putting in recycle bundle, more gas to deliver to the recycle bins, more pickup of bins, more driving over the landfill to bury the paper ......

It is a self perpetuating system .....

;-)

Posted by: Chester on April 5 2008 5:27 PM

rightwing, you are absolutely hillarious. I haven't laughed so hard in months.

Now the problem is not those who have no gabage, or those who don't utilize the full capacity of the cans they are paying for. Those of us who find ourselves on occasion with a surplus need to check out the neighbors cans and make sure we top them up to make sure everyone is using and maximizing maximum value of their cans. Chester

Posted by: rightwing on April 5 2008 7:56 PM

Hey Chester Im glad someone likes me on here... But I thought that this new system of garbage removal was going to save us money... I have yet to see this happen. Another one of the mayors use or words