Sudbury barber pays for unneeded bins after 6-year fight with city "Biz Box"

A Sudbury barber says the city forced him to sign up for a business waste program he doesn't need.

Ugo Rocca has been a barber in Sudbury's west end for nearly half a century, but had never seen or heard of something called the "Biz Box" or "Biz Bag" program until a few years ago.

He was told he had to sign up or the city would stop picking up his residential garbage, from the apartment above his shop where he lives with his wife.

Rocca says his shop produces a small garbage bag of hair every couple of weeks and the only recycling is the Sudbury Star newspaper he buys for customers to read.

He says that six years ago, city officials told him it was illegal to put that in his residential blue box and garbage bag.

Rocca says he had several meetings at the time with the mayor and his city councillor, as well as officials from the solid waste department, but it was sorted out.

He says then two years ago, it came up again. He says in the past few months, he's had hours of meetings with the mayor and top bureaucrats.

"I'membarassedto sit with the two number one people of the city. To sit here for more than an hour each time to discuss five pounds a week or two weeks of garbage," says Rocca.

"Now, finally I give up to arguing. They tell me that's the rules, you have to enroll it."

Rocca says he paid $341 for the boxes and bags, which he doesn't expect he'll ever need to use.

He sees this kind of policy as "destroying" small businesses in the city, who already pay a good amount of taxes.

"Tax over tax and now we have to pay even to recycle the Sudbury Star," says Rocca.

City solid waste manager Renee Brownlee says she can't comment on individual cases.

But she says businesses, no matter how small, have to pay to take care of their own garbage, since taxpayers only cover the cost of residential waste pick-up.

"If we started to collect from all the businesses it would be an extra added cost and we'd probably need to double and triple our fleet," says Brownlee.

Brownlee says the city has had this program for over a decade now and there are 125 businesses signed up for the recycling program and 25 for the "Biz Bag" garbage pick-up.