Okotoks bi-weekly garbage pick-up pilot project got underway in June in the Mountainview and Woodhaven neighbourhoods.

Resident Ryan Nix started a petition against the project, but now says the upgraded bin size has been able to handle his family's needs thus far, although there is a bit of an odour issue.

"We have noticed that the black bin does have a bit of a smell to it when you get to the end of that second week, but the town did upgrade us to the larger 240 litre black bin at no charge, and it's been large enough to handle the amount of garbage we've had," he said.

He says his family does a lot of camping in the summer months, so it's difficult to determine whether or not the trash capacity would exceed the bin size during normal months, as they are disposing of trash before they return home from holidays.

Nix also says he's unsure what the future holds after the project comes to an end in September.

"What they'd really like to do is to get people on a "pay for what you throw away," system. In my experience, every time a government, whether it's the Town or some other government, goes to that kind of system, they find a way to scale up the fees. So if you want the same service you had before, you end up paying more," said Nix.

Nix started a petition on Change.Org against the pilot project when it was first announced after the community Facebook page was flooded with comments from angry residents when the town made the announcement via a dropped off letter.

He says he suspects this time of year was chosenfor the project, due to people being away and not generating as much waste as they would in Fall and Winter months.

 

Send us your news tips, story ideas and comments at news@highriveronline.com