Yes, Elaine. Since we have switched to day-of-the-week pickup, then what we put out for trash on that day, irrespective of bin colour.

Given the cover was off the bin and the garbage bags were piled over the top,, it is obvious that the bin contained the big garbage bags. Should I leave 12 big garbage bags on the sidewalk edge, or two bins with six big bags in each? We do generate a lot of garbage, as we are a family of 9.

An additional comment. My neighbour is a bachelor in a single family dwelling. He is a cattle buyer-seller and is on the road from 5am Monday to Friday afternoon. Garbage day is Thursday. What is he to do? In the past, when garbage was collected on different days of the street, depending on area within CSL, we had our collection on Mondays, whereas east of Cavendish, collection was on Thursday. He (and we) could leave his garbage at a friend's house if we missed out day.
Now all garbage is collected on Thursday. So there is nowhere to leave the stuff, except at bus stops where there is a city bin.

With a one-day-per-week collection, the city has to provide a location and a dumpster bin for the situations where we forgot to put out the garbage, or we were away on that day. Where is the dumpster? I am accumulating three weeks of garbage. For sanitary reasons I should be able to put some sacs into the trunk and drop them into a city provided dumpster bin.
ALMOST EVERY OTHER CITY HAS SUCH A FACILITY.

We're happy to report that we've now fixed this issue.

If you fixed the problem, where is the solution posted. You have definitely not fixed the problem until you respond to the originator explaining the fix. And you should also respond to Elaine M

Hi Leslie. There are several questions on this thread. I will try to answer all of them.

1. Regarding your question (and Elaine's re-phrasing of your question) about why you need to use the specific bin on the specific day, the official answer is in Annex B of By-law 2302 (http://www.cotesaintluc.org/files/u1/city_clerk/bylaws/bylaw_2302.pdf#page=23).

However, putting aside the by-law, the technical reason why recyclables put be put in a specific type of blue bin is because the arm on the truck that collects it is designed to lift specific models of blue bins.

2. Regarding whether you can use blue-bins for regular garbage, the short answer is "Yes, but..." The by-law text (below) doesn't seem to preclude using your blue bin for garbage, but we live in an imperfect world and it is entirely conceivable that the garbage collection crew might assume the blue bin was put at the curb in error. As a practical matter, painting your (second) blue bin a different colour would certainly reduce the chance for confusion. For the record, here is how the by-law defines what type of bin you can use for garbage:

"Refuse Receptacle" means a rigid plastic or metal container designed for the disposal of Waste Materials, with a maximum capacity of 100 litres and weighing a maximum of 25 kilograms when full, if not equipped with wheels; or a maximum capacity of 360 litres and weighing a maximum of 135 kilograms when full, if equipped with wheels, a lid and a bracket allowing the Receptacle to be picked up by the mechanical arm on the Collector's vehicle, and that is filled no higher than its sides.

3. Regarding your question about a waste dump, CSL does not have one. Instead we offer curbside collection. We also do our best help residents -- as we did in your case when we collected your garbage on a different day. We even have a special day -- Wednesdays -- for residents to dispose of three bulky waste items for free per week. We do this to make disposing our your waste as easy as possible. We just ask that, in return, you use the correct bins.

Leslie, if you would like to discuss this further, you can call or email me anytime. You have my contact info already. Have a great day.

Hi Darryl.

I am replying here with ClickFix.,

Here is another aspect to what I wrote. First of all, I am for the balance of the week, in Massena NY, visiting a friend whose wife died. I left this 11am. I will not be back until Friday night. Ergo, my garbage will remain alongside the garage door for another week.

One thing your bylaw did not address was rules for three families in a dwelliing. My wife and I own the duplex. My daughter and her husband live with us, along with 3 grandkids. My daughter has health issues, that is why we are together. My son and his girlfriend live upstairs, as tenants. We eat together and my wife and daughter cook for 9. All together we do generate garbage for more than two families. The garage has provisions for 2 cars, and the driveway has one car parked. One lane of the driveway is for entry/exit. Where do we put the extra garbage?

In the past, on garbage days, we manually dumped the garbage bags from the blue bin to the sidewalk in front of the driveway. Some number of bags, as noted in the bylaws are allowed. So, when we missed three weeks, we thought the workers would tip the bins and remove the bags. We do not put loose garbage into bins, except the leaves that go into the brown ones.

We never put compost into any brown bins, for the reason that squirrels, raccoons and skunks gnaw holes in the bin covers and attack same.

But, what we are doing to comply, for next week when we return and are in CSL is to do what we did in the past, to dump the bags from the bins to the sidewalk edge.

My real disappointment with the one day per week collection is that the city made no provision for a container for missed collections. Somebody did not think of this need. And it will be needed during the coming summer months and vacations.

Its winter, so there is no smell, no flies, no mice, no raccoons, no skunks, such as we experience every summer. I can always store the garbage for second week. But the city must make available a container for the summer and for the circumstances where a resident can not store smelling and rotting garbage more than 7 days. Where is that bin location?

I know that public works has a container to store the trash that is collected from the wastebaskets. But its availability is restricted to employees and to restricted hours of access.

When a collection is missed and a resident goes to work in the morning, or returns from work in the evening and needs to get rid of garbage, the CSL yard is locked. That CSL container is not available.

If you have been following the complaint, from emails and from this posting, you must know that in the past, the city was divided into districts for trash collection. We had green bag collection on Mondays, east of Cavendish their day was Wednesday and West of Westminiister towards CSL road on Fridays. If we were missed, we could visit one of the other areas and drop off a bag or two at my in-laws or friends.

Now they are in the same pickle as me. If they miss Thursday, they have to wait a week, or find a container belonging to IGA, Metro, etc and dump the garbage there. Is that what residents are supposed to do?

In the USA, the resident would sue the city for not making a container or dumpsite available as part of a sanitary service. American citizens pay taxes for sanitation services and they sue if services are not provided. We are complacent and won't sue.

Up until the era of the bins, we had twice a week collection. The design of houses, apartments, duplexes etc., had limited space allotted for garbage based on twice a week collection. I have 2 blue, 2 brown, and I am supposed to have two green. Do I store them on the front lawn on my side of the property line?

What is the city's solution to the need for an accessible container at a public place?

The issue is not closed until the city recognizes that they must provide a container.

Contrary to the radio button below on this website, I do not acknowledge the issue is closed.

Regards

Leslie

Hi Leslie. I understand what you are saying. Please, remember that if one uses ones brown bin for its intended use of food waste, then you can dispose of your (smelly) waste on Monday, and then *again* on Thursday when the regular garbage is collected. In other words, you still have two days a week to dispose of smelly waste. I understand this is a change from the way you are accustomed to doing it.

Exactly. Composting is the proper solution that will reduce our landfill. Please consider the environment.

I invite you to come to my house and demonstrate the use of the bins, from kitchen to bin. The brown bin is not accessable from within the house, nor will it ever be.

See first and write second.

A further comment. You do not know what I have been saying. Just as I do not know what is in your mind.

With composting and recycling in effect in CSL, actual garbage should not be that big. I understand not wanting to compost in the summer with the heat, flies and magnots but in Winter, there is no reason not to compost. It can't be that squirrels and raccoons only affect your bins. I don't want my taxes to increase because the city has to make special trips to pick up your garbage. Garbage dump is available at the montreal eco-centres. A nice convenient one is in Lasalle 7272, rue Saint-Patrick (between Senkus and Léger). It is free with Montreal proof of residency.

If you still don't want to compost in bins, given that you 'create' so much garbage, you can always buy a composter for your yard and make nice fertilizer for your garden.

If you know you will all be away, ask a neighbour to bring out your bin. But given that you are 3 families in your dwelling, are you the only person who can bring out the bins? I am proud to live in CSL which offers composting which encourages less landfill.

As for using different coloured bins from what you are supposed to use, I disagree with that. Some people leave all their bins at the curb, which I agree, they shouldn’t do. But, as you have pointed out, this could be due to lack of space. In these cases, how are the waste disposal people supposed to know which bin to empty if not for the colour. The last thing (those that care about the environment) want is for recyclables or compost to be dumped into the real garbage truck or worse, garbage to be dumped into the recyclables or compost trucks and contaminant the load.

Unfortunately, I do not think you can blame your predicament on Cote St Luc. and insist that they need to find you a solution.

Hi CSL

I was happy to learn that the bin color had something to do with the spacing of the handles. Given that the bins are not interchangeable because of handle spacing, we now returned to removing the green garbage bags from the bins and placing them at the sidewalk edge. The problem has been solved.

I suppose there will be a requirement to modify the bylaw about garbage bags to include minimum and maximum bag sizes, and if a color other than green is allowed. Should the plastic for the bag have a minimum tensile strength. There is also no financial penalty for failing to comply. Hopefully that can be incorporated as well.

I asked for a CSL site for taking bags when a pickup was missed. The rules for the Eco Centre are: Montreal Residents only.

I live in Cote Saint Luc, and am not entitled to access. The second bit of information you omitted was what was allowed to be brought to the Eco Centre. It is not "green garbage bags" but clean material such as plaster, old gyproc, and similar items, or tins of old oil based paints.

This is my important point to make. You must not have a car parked at the curb, blocking the bags from view, be it your own vehicle or a neighbours. If the bags are not seen, or access is partially blocked, too bad. Examples from the past where garbage was skipped were "Videotron truck parked, blocking the view to the bags, and a plumber's truck doing likewise. The two events occurred at end July.

Up to three months ago, when a collection was missed, I could bring a bag or two to a friend's house, as their collection was on a different day from ours. As i wrote already, he is also in the same pickle.

Given the new schedule, the city has to provide for the entire CSL, access to a container to cover missed pickups. That is more my argument than color of the bins.

Hi CSL

When you are, as we, in a moderate sized premises, with one kitchen rubbish container and no room for a second, and no internal place to store garbage bags, When your front door faces one street, and your garage door is on another street, the only possible green, blue or brown bin location is outside around the corner beside the driveway. And because of bin location, It is absolutely necessary to wear boots, coat and hat to dump some trash., It is only when you getting dressed to put out garbage is impractical. Weather makes you realize that garbage sorting is not practical, even if desirable.

Talk is easy when you are not in someone elses shoes, It is easy to talk when you are a couple with one or two kids and your driveway is in the front of the house. Your trash in three days is what we generate in one day. We do 27 meals per day plus snacks for three pre-teens.

We are 6 adults and 3 pre-teens. We have 3 cars. Two cars we park in the garage and one in the driveway. There is no inside route to trash bins. We have no room in the garage to store bins or filled garbage bags.

Thnk you can do better than us? You are welcome to come visit to demonstrate how we can comply with sorting.

Back to that special container. Wait for summer. It will become most interesting when the high heat and humidity arrives. With 9,000 resident buildings, I will not be the only one pointing out the folly of not having access to an in-city backup container drop-off.

And because of conflict of interest between residents and CSL, this containier-bin problem may not ever be printed in the Suburban.

Hi Leslie. I will share with you my own lifehack with organic waste collection. I live in DDO, which also has blue bins, brown bins and garbage (although no special curbside collection for bulky waste). We are two adults and three children.

In my kitchen, I put only food scraps and soiled napkins into a large garbage bin lined with a plastic ForceFlex Glad garbage bag. (I know that plastic bags are not permitted, but you'll see how I solve this problem below.)

Once a week, I bring this (very strong) white plastic bag to the garage and empty the contents into my brown bin. I use a double-paper bag to line my brown bin. I then throw away my ForceFlex Glad bag in the regular garbage. The plastic bag must *not* go in the brown bin.

By doing it this way, I have:

1. Reduced the number of trips to my brown bin.
2. Kept all my smelliest kitchen garbage in a smell-proof plastic bag until transferring the contents to my brown bin.
3. Tripled the amount of organic waste I put in my brown bin.

The key is to change the way you deal with garbage *in the kitchen* rather than *in the garage*. Leslie, I encourage to try this method, as a test. It worked for me and may work for you too.

hI Darryl,

I presume that DDO provides access to a container. From the ddo website. I have sent them a request for clarification regarding unscheduled waste pickup or delivery.

http://www.ville.ddo.qc.ca/en/default.asp?contentID=95
http://www.ville.ddo.qc.ca/en/default.asp?contentID=249

We , us, do a partial separation of dry recyclable material for the Tuesday pickup.

BACK TO CSL
Why don't you come over any day and see our constraints regarding waste separation.

The topic has changed from dual use of blue bins to an unscheduled missed Monday or Friday pickup. Once every few months, a pickup could be missed.

We missed 3 weeks in a row of Monday pickups. We need a city position about exceptional events as to what started this on-going request for action. What is the location of the city containers to where we can bring a missed collection? One container for Green bags, one for compostable trash?

In a city the size of CSL, I can say with 99% certainty, this missed collection occurrence will happen to a few residents here, every week.

Perhaps, CSL and Hampstead (include Montreal West) could get together to provide (publish) container locations. Like DDO, perhaps for the summer months May--October inclusive.

5752 Av Lockwood

The city has since set aside a bin at the Mackle street garage, (we still need to phone for an appointment) to drop off waste that was not collected on Thursdays, the issue of blue-green brown bins has become a non -issue.

We store our garbage bags in the blue bins, and on Thursday's we empty the bin of the garbage bags and leave these bags at edge of the property.

We put our recycling stuff in a clear bag or smaller blue bin for the recycle collection days.

But we have a new problem now with once a week collection. People are bringing their garbage from the inside streets (Melling, Trinity, etc,) and dumping their garbage bags on my neighbours or on my property in the belief that the city passes daily to clean the city owned trash bins and the city will pickup their dumped bags. The cleanliness of the city has become worse.

The city has to put an ad in the suburban to let residents know about the waste container at the Municipal garage (Mackle near Caldwell) and also the phone number.

Closed because I have been able to make use of the bin.