Sudbury households soon to be limited to one garbage bag a week

Starting on Oct. 1, households in the City of Greater Sudbury will be limited to one bag of garbage per week.

It's part of the city's plan to reduce landfill use, and promote recycling and composting programs in the community. The first phase of the plan began in 2016 when the city reduced garbage collection from three bags to two bags.The goal is to limit garbage pick-up to two bags every second week by February 2021.

On Monday, Sudbury's Operations Committee heard about the plan to help residents transition to the new collection limit.

"The majority of residents are already down to one bag, so we can see how the baby steps that we have taken and that we're going to continue to take, are leading our residents in the right direction. We're hoping to see that participation in the green cart increase with the next step that we're going to take," said Renee Brownlee, the city's manager of collection and recycling.

The Green Cart Program is the city's composting program, which is free for households that sign up.

She says they are continuing to educate the community about the different programs available when it comes to what to do with household garbage.

"A lot of the support programs that we're going to have in place to help people with different circumstances, families with children in diapers, medical circumstances and residences who have pets as well," Brownlee said.

Greater Sudbury has special support programs which offer different optionsfor householdswith children in diapers, medical waste and/or pet waste.

Brownlee says the Garbage Bag Tag program will still be available for households that need to put out more than the one bag limit. It is $10 for five tags and there is no limit on the amount of garbage bags as long as they all have tags on them.

The city is working on making the tags available for purchase online, as well asadding more locations to buy tags to make it easier for residents who live outside of the Sudbury core.