County taking action to address waste collection impacts
The County continues to experience impacts to curbside waste collection services and is taking steps to proactively mitigate impacts moving forward for the rest of the summer. The County is doing everything it can to get waste materials off the streets for residents. Garbage and green bin collection has been prioritized – most misses have been related to recycling materials.
The County’s contractor, Waste Connections, continues to experience challenges with staffing due to labour shortages, drivers reaching their maximum legally permitted hours to operate, and increased summer waste volumes. These issues are compounded by the heat and humidity, among other factors. As such, the County has taken steps to bring in additional resources from other waste collection contractors to help address the service issues. Residents may see a different collection vehicle picking up materials during August and into September. The additional resources should help to alleviate the service impacts, however this strategy may not result in an immediate solution.
The County appreciates residents’ patience and understanding as we work to resolve the current service impacts for the remainder of the summer. If waste collection delays continue, residents are reminded that crews will work late into the evening and notifications about misses will be sent out on the County’s social media channels, simcoe.ca, and now pushed through the new Simcoe County Collects app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play free of charge.
Waste Collection Impact Update for Friday, August 2:
Residents in Friday’s collection area are asked to leave any uncollected recyclables out at the curb through Saturday, August 3. The County anticipates that there will also be some additional misses on Saturday and it asks those missed households to bring materials in on Saturday evening and receive double collection on your next regularly scheduled collection day (Friday, August 9).
County of Simcoe is composed of sixteen member municipalities and provides crucial public services to County residents in addition to providing paramedic and social services to the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia. Visit our website at simcoe.ca.