Both the Town of Tecumseh and the Municipality of Leamington have approved the Regional Waste Management initiative for their respective town's.
During their meetings on Tuesday evening, both sets of council supported the County of Essex by-law, being a by-law to transfer all power of the lower tier municipalities of the County with respect to the collection of waste and the delivery of such waste.
The County of Essex and the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority staff have made presentations to all local municipalities, and all but Lakeshore, Essex and Kingsville have passed a similar resolution in support of exploring the Regional Waste Initiative further.
On August 16, County administration brought forward the proposed regionalization of waste collection to County Council for consideration, which was passed with 10 votes for and four votes against.
This change would see a bi-weekly garbage collection, weekly organics collection, bi-weekly leaf and yard waste collection for urban residents, and monthly white goods collection.
In Tecumseh, the report was supported unanimously.
Gary McNamara, Mayor of Tecumseh, says all of the municipalities share the same landfill, and it's filling up.
"We all share into that landfill and the best opportunity for us is to try and divert as much as we can to extend the life of that landfill. And how do you do that? Well, obviously, I think by regionalizing, I think this type of service makes a whole lot of sense."
Joe Bachetti, Deputy Mayor of Tecumseh, says education will be a key component.
"Those that are still not sold on this idea, could be just a matter of time, they need more time, they need more information. And so, hopefully they'll come to an informed decision, but, this to me is an easy one in terms of looking at 10 years down the line. This is a decision that we're making today that will have a 10 year impact."
Brian Houston, councillor for Tecumseh, says he's happy to see this moving forward.
"We need to be a leader, but I think our area and we're behind times. This to me is something that makes sense."
In Leamington, the report passed with only one councillor opposed.
Hilda MacDonald, Mayor of Leamington, says a new landfill will cost way too much, and take too much time to acquire.
"If we can keep our landfill from filling up, as is expected, that's much better. A brand new landfill will be well over $100-million, and we have not started to save for that. And even to get the land will be years."
She says this is the right path.
"We need to evolve. The days of throwing all your stuff at the curb are long gone, it's no longer the way to go."
MacDonald says residents will learn to adapt as they did with recycling.
"People will have to change, we all have to change. I think back to the days of recycling, when it took us a while to learn to put that cardboard and the plastic in the bin, and now it's just a matter of road. We don't question it."
This by-law will require that at least four of the seven local municipalities, comprising at least 50 per cent of the electors in the County pass resolutions in support of the change.
On September 5, Windsor City Council also approved the new model for the frequency in garbage collection, as well as how garbage will be sorted throughout the city.