CORNWALL – The City of Cornwall will be moving to a four bag garbage bag limit (or two containers) for residential curbside pickup starting this fall.
City council voted Monday night on a compromise proposal from Coun. Carilyne Hebert to phase down from the current six bags to four bags in October and then potentially to two bags (one container) in April 2021 pending a review by council.
An original staff recommendation was to immediately go to two bags (or one container).
Hebert told council that it’s “not a radical recommendation” and suggested Cornwall is decades behind other Ontario communities with controlling garbage. She noted that her heart was behind a two bag limit immediately but she also needed to balance the feelings of her constituents.
A number of her counterparts, including Coun. Justin Towndale and Coun. Eric Bergeron, called it a reasonable compromise.
The changes will include putting a bag tag program in place where residents could buy additional tags for additional bags – they could cost anywhere from $1.50 to $3 per bag – and also a program for collection of large items. Those details still need to be worked out.
Mayor Bernadette Clement was happy to see the city tackle the large item disposal because getting rid of those items are “practically very difficult for folks.”
She called the phased reduction of bag limits a “good direction and good phased in approach…good municipal policy.”
The new bag limit will start the week of Oct. 5.