Taxpayers sign petition against reducing garbage collecting in Pointe Claire

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by Rhonda Massad

In an effort to encourage more composting and reduce waste the city of Pointe Claire has changed their garbage collection from every week to every second Wednesday.  Many residents are not happy about the change and have started a petition to have the decision reversed.  

The online petition with 375 names at press time, claims “taxpayers are entitled receive the services available in the community and to live in a pleasant, attractive, and healthy environment. Restricting garbage removal to a biweekly schedule in the summer months will create unpleasant odours with unhealthy side effects, and the attraction of animals.”

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At the June public council meeting residents complaints ranged from hygiene concerns, the increase in the racoon and rat population as well as garbage surplus that would not be collected.  

Pointe Claire Mayor, Morris Trudeau repeated that the garbage should not be encouraging rodents because food and kitchen waste goes into another bin that is still picked up weekly. 

A resident with young children expressed concern that his garbage with only soiled diapers inside it was ripped apart by racoons and could not be disposed of for two weeks. One taxpayer attested to witnessing household garbage being dumped in a public park.  Still another resident with pets complained that though garbage was reduced her pet poop made it unbearable to keep the waste around for two weeks.  

“I just think summer is a bad time to start this new initiative – there are a lot of young families with diapers and animals, last night my garbage was torn apart by racoons,” Pointe Claire resident Mandy Finkelstein told The Suburban, “Where are people supposed to store garbage for weeks at a time without it smelling bad?”

Additional green-kitchen-organic waste curb-side collections, held on Tuesdays, have become a permanent weekly service as of April. Pointe-Claire provides blue rolling bins for weekly recycling of paper, plastic and glass materials, while green rolling bins are provided by the city for its organic collections.

“The city does not have enough bins to supply all the residents, a third of the city does not have proper bins” Finkelstein complained, “the city should be prepared and give the residents time to adjust to the new system and figure out what works and what doesn’t make sense.”