The new era in Ottawa recycling has gotten off to a bumpy start, some residents and city councillors say.
Conflicting pickup information, unemptied bins and a crammed customer support line are among the issues people reported to CBC after Miller Waste Systems took over recycling collection at all single-family homes on Jan. 1.
“People were sending emails [to Miller Waste], people were calling in, there were full mailboxes,” Orléans East-Cumberland Coun. Matt Luloff said on Friday.
Technical issue dogs app
Miller Waste is under contract to Circular Materials, the group tapped by the Ontario government to manage the province’s recycling system. Circular Materials was founded by 17 of Canada’s “leading food, beverage and consumer products manufacturers, restaurants and retailers,” according to its website.
Those companies, along with hundreds of others, now pay for the cost of the recycling collection. As Luloff notes, that reduces the tax burden on Ottawa residents since the city is now on the hook only for garbage and organics pickup.
Theresa Kavanagh, the councillor for Bay ward, said she’s received positive feedback from residents who are now able to put more in their blue boxes than they could before. She said last week was “generally smooth” considering the new system started after a holiday break.
Miller Waste Systems took over recycling pickup for Ottawa single-family homes on Jan. 1. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)
But Kavanagh and Luloff said one issue that initially caused confusion was that pickup dates listed by Circular Materials did not align with the schedule established by the City of Ottawa.
“It was a bumpy start in some neighbourhoods,” Kavanagh said.
Allen Langdon, CEO of Circular Materials, blamed a technical issue with the company’s app and recommended people go to its website and enter their address to confirm their pickup information.
The company is working to address the app issue and expects updates to be finalized in the coming days, Langdon said Monday.
‘I just want some communication’
Gary Rusyn in Kanata encountered a different issue last week: Most of his recyclables just didn’t get picked up.
Jan. 5 marked Rusyn’s first collection day since the holiday season, and his blue bin was full. His family of four had also left some loose items at the curb. Only the loose stuff got picked up.
“It is a fairly large bin, but I’m curious to know: Is it the bin? Was it just missed? I just want some communication,” Rusyn said from his driveway last week.
Rusyn said he emailed Miller Waste multiple times and got no response. He tried their phone line but their voice mailbox was full.
Rusyn finally got through by phone Friday, and the company sent a truck by later that day to complete the pickup.
Gary Rusyn sits at his kitchen table last week. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)
The City of Ottawa said its 311 phone line transferred over 600 calls to Miller Waste and Circular Materials from Jan. 1 to Jan. 8.
“I think they’ve taken measures to make sure that they’ve got enough capacity to manage the calls,” Langdon said.
As for the bin size, Langdon said a standard blue or black box is preferred, but the company will collect recycling set out in non-standard containers as long as they can be safely lifted and emptied by workers. Recycling should generally weigh less than 23 kilograms, he added.
No cost for a new bin
Langdon cleared up another bin issue, too.
When the City of Ottawa was in charge, it did not charge homeowners for replacement bins. CBC asked if that would remain the case and was initially told by Circular Materials on Dec. 31 that there would be no charge.
On Jan. 1, however, resident David Cuddy emailed Miller Waste to ask for a new bin, only to be told that “containers will only be provided free of charge to new build homes,” according to the Miller Waste email response he shared with CBC.
CBC asked Langdon what the deal is. “There’s no cost to the resident for a new bin,” he confirmed last week.
Miller Waste Systems picks up recycling in Centretown on Jan. 8. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)
Asked if Circular Materials will maintain the pickup schedule Ottawa taxpayers are used to, Langdon said that’s something his group will continue to work with the city on, but added that “from our perspective, [that] would make sense.”
Miller Waste is still trucking Ottawa’s recyclables to the Cascades Recovery+ plant in the city’s east end — the same location Ottawa took them to. No one has lost their job as a result of the switch to Circular Materials, according to the city.
The city’s collections calendar app will continue to show recycling schedules “to support our residents during this transition period,” the city added via email.
‘It’s a bit of a rough start, but it seems to me that they’re starting to get a handle on things,’ Coun. Matt Luloff said of the switch to Miller Waste Systems and Circular Materials.
(Guy Quenneville/CBC)
Luloff is used to dealing with city staff on residents’ recycling questions.
Now the introduction of a third-party operator introduces a frustrating wrinkle for him as a councillor, he said.
“We’re in the same line as everybody else,” Luloff said of responding to the concerns of residents.