Spring Survey

Potential Expansion of Green Bin Accepted materials: 

Expand the Green Bin organics program to potentially include items such as hygiene products (e.g., diapers) and animal waste (e.g., dog waste, cat litter) for organics processing. To assess the feasibility of this expansion, the County will evaluate potential shifts in operating costs and collection methods, such as the introduction of the use of plastic bin-liners.

Establish a Formal Textile Collection Program:  

Create a formal program collecting used clothing,  fabrics and textiles, such as allowing residents to drop off these items during scheduled Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) event days.

Support and Facilitate Repair Café & Lending Libraries: 

Champion community-led programs where residents can have their broken items fixed, or can borrow shared tools, therefore supporting a more circular economy in the County where resources are shared and materials are repaired.

Develop Curbside Giveaway Days: 

Create a "Goods Exchange Day" program 2–3 times per year where residents could place reusable items, including furniture, at the curb for neighbours to pick up for free, keeping these items out of the landfill.

Expand Dufferin’s "Take It Back" Program: 

Evolve the current "Take It Back" program to make it easier for residents to reuse and divert items from the waste stream by providing information and guidance to residents on local retailers, vendors, and organizations for reuse, repair, sharing, recycling, or proper disposal of items.

Update Waste Collection By-law: 

Review and update the County’s waste rules to reflect recent changes, such as new provincial requirements where the companies that produce packaging are now responsible for the Blue Box recycling program in Ontario.

Enhance Solid Waste By-law Enforcement Tools: 

Use enforcement tools to ensure residents understand and comply with municipal waste rules that are in place for waste diversion, such as properly sorting food waste into their Green Bin and not disposing of it in the garbage waste stream. Enhanced actions could include "tag and leave" protocols where repeatedly improperly sorted waste is not collected and an “oops” sticker is left to explain the issue.

Assess Curbside Collection System Using Carts: 

Evaluate a potential future curbside garbage and organics collection system that uses wheeled carts, that can be emptied by automated or semi-automated waste collection trucks. This study would look at factors such as the impacts on operational costs and timing of the potential change (e.g. around a new collection contract).

Review the Household Hazardous Wastes (HHW) and Electronics Waste Program for Expansion: 

Explore options and feasibility to improve the collection of household hazardous waste materials (e.g., paint, cleaning products,  solvents etc.) and electronic wastes, such as providing more HHW event days, using a mobile drop-off depot, or creating a permanent year-round facility (depot) to help decrease service wait times and improve access.

Assess Future Disposal Services for Solid Waste: 

Currently the County’s garbage is landfilled in the State of Michigan (United States) and landfill capacity is filling up in Ontario. This assessment would consider alternatives for garbage disposal/services including other options in Canada and/or waste to energy.

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