If the goal of moving Waterloo Region onto a biweekly garbage pickup schedule was to encourage people to make better use of green bins, then here’s one sign it may be working.
Regional officials announced Tuesday that they are temporarily unable to give out any more green bins, as a “surge” in the number of people seeking them has exhausted their supply.
Jon Arsenault, the region’s director of waste management, says more than 700 bins were given away on Monday – the first day of the new biweekly garbage pickup program.
“The demand for green bins is very encouraging and we are very excited that so many residents decided to start using the program,” he said in a news release.
It is expected that more green bins will be available to be given away by later this month or early April.
So far this year, 11,000 green bins have been given away by the region, not including the 3,500 delivered to rural homes receiving green bin pickup for the first time.
Prior to 2016, the annual average was 6,000 bins being given away.
Green bins and recycling bins continue to be picked up every week under the region’s new collection schedule.
