The warden of Essex County is defending the decision to let residents know the exact cost of the green bin organic waste collection program.
Hundreds of recent social media posts have expressed anger and confusion about the the cost of the program, with the fee varying slightly from each municipality but is well over $150 per year.
The cost per household for the provincially mandated program will be included as a line item of each property tax bill.
Warden Hilda MacDonald told AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides that they're putting it on the tax bill so people can see what they're paying for.
"We could have put it into the tax rate where no one would have seen it, but we felt it was more open and transparent, showing what it was costing us. Who should pay for this? Money doesn't grow on trees, right? This is a service the province says we have to do, and someone has to pay for it," she says.
Essex County Council voted in 2023 to adopt an organic waste collection program, and in December 2025, the council received a report on the estimated annual green bin user-fee costs per household in 2026.
The program was launched in Essex, Lakeshore, LaSalle, and Tecumseh in October 2025 and phase two will begin in Leamington, Kingsville, and Amherstburg in October 2026.
MacDonald says there is no opting out because it's something they have to do.
"I don't have kids going to school; I pay for school taxes," she says. "I don't have sidewalks in front of my house. All of these things are things we pay for the collective good."
The green bin is just like the blue and red box recycling programs for plastics and paper, only it involves food waste and organic material being collected and sent to Seacliff Energy in Leamington to be converted into a liquid fertilizer.
MacDonald says we are one of the last ones in Ontario to do this and there was no opportunity for public input on this program because we had no choice.
"County Council had an opportunity to offset these costs by moving to regional garbage collection and getting economies of scale. But the council voted for the status quo," she says. "They felt the residents wanted to keep a certain service level, so seven separate garbage contracts have been negotiated for seven different municipalities."
The goal of the program is to divert waste from the landfill at 7700 County Rd. 18 in Essex, which is due to reach capacity in 2040.
Click here to find more information on the green bin billing process.