The root cause of overflowing garbage in Langford is privatized garbage pick up.
We need to consolidate our garbage pickup, saving us all money. This would do a number of things. Besides keeping people from stuffing household trash into these bins, which costs the city more dollars, it may even save the average household money.
On our street in the Happy Valley area, we have three different companies pick up household trash, on different days, at different prices, and none are cheap. This also adds to greenhouse gases, as three different trucks “cherry pick” trash from only their customers. This is not an efficient use of resources.
If the city put out a tender for one single company to pick up all the trash, we would have zero duplication of services and also have the companies bid for the whole city, or parts thereof for this service. This bid process would ensure we get the best bang for our buck. This could also be applied to the kitchen waste pickup also.
Langford is the first city I have lived in where it is a “free for all” when it comes to garbage pick up, versus a city service included in taxes. I think the time is now to get smarter on how this is done. The end result would be no more household trash in public garbage bins and a more efficient application of services. I am sure this is worth a look.
Rod Stiebel
Langford
