City council is working towards improving garbage collection in alley ways throughout Windsor.
During Tuesday's meeting, council approved for "optional bidding" through request for proposal's with or without garbage collection in alleys. The motion put forward by ward 1 councillor Fred Francis states that bidders must submit a bid for curbside, but would have the option to submit for bids for alley garbage collection as well.
Francis states that it's important that all options are out there to see how the garbage gets collected.
Ward 2 councillor, Fabio Costante, put forward a motion requesting that the collection remains the same, however that was opposed by council.
A majority of residents in the city have their garbage, recycling, and yard waste collected at their curbside, however, 219 residential blocks in the city have alley garbage collection. Of those, 40 blocks, or 18 per cent, receive all three waste collection services in the alley and are mainly alleys located on one-way streets.
Administration states that collection in alleys presents several challenges, including a variety of dimensions, encroachments, illegally parked vehicles, and the presence of hazardous items like needles.
The vehicles used to collect the waste are much smaller, meaning they can't carry as much waste, requiring more trips leading to increased costs.
Francis says the RFP allows for more options.
"The motion essentially allows anyone who wants to bid on the city's garbage contract to go, 'okay, we want to collect garbage not on the curb, or we want to bid on garbage from the curb and in the alley's where they currently are collected, or we just want to do from the curb'. So, it provides council with the option of bids."
He says council will ultimately decide on what is best for the alley's.
"What administration was saying a bidder might choose not to bid on that option, that's going to be up to them. But, we don't know until we put it out there. But, anyone that's going to be bidding on a garbage collection from the City of Windsor moving forward is going to get to bid on curbside pick up, or alley pick up. Now, they can choose just doing it on curbside, but at least we'll know those options."
Mark McKenzie, ward 4 councillor, says he feels if the collection is moved out of the alleys, it will create more issues.
"And my worry is, and we've discussed this at Committee as well, is that if we start moving garbage out of the alley, say we do that, well then what is the city's incentive to continue maintaining these alleys? We don't maintain them as is."
While the city could receive zero bids for alley collection, Francis says the only way to find out is for an RFP to be put out.
He states that he's expecting administration to put the RFP up an extremely fast manner.
If proposals are submitted, they will be presented to council at a later date to make a further decision on next steps for alley garbage collection.
Administration is looking for the change in collection location in alleys to coincide with the start of the new collection contract, estimated to be in April 2025.