Taking out the trash… eventually

More than 2,000 Winnipeg households need their damaged garbage and/or recycling carts replaced and can expect about a five-week wait for new ones.

The City of Winnipeg said multiple factors caused a major backlog of about 2,100 homes to accumulate in that queue, which led the wait time to surge to around 25 business days.

“These (issues) kind of combined in a perfect storm,” said Michael Gordichuk, the city’s manager of solid waste services.

Waste collection carts originally rolled out to Winnipeg homes in 2012, when the city started using the wheeled automated bins to collect household waste. Fourteen years later, many of the receptacles are wearing out, said Gordichuk.

“The average lifespan for carts is around 10 years… They’re long past their life expectancy,” he said.

The typical replacement cart waiting period is about 10 business days. The wait began to grow longer around the end of October, as calls for replacements increased, while problems with some cargo vans used to deliver the carts later added to the delay, Gordichuk said.

The problem began to worsen again in December, due to increased staff holidays and illness, he said.

The city opted against a blanket replacement of all collection carts, since that option would cost much more than replacing individual carts as required.

“You have roughly 230,000 residents with the garbage and recycling carts and our average cost per cart would be $100. It’s a substantial amount of money and you would be replacing what technically could be new carts (for any replaced earlier),” said Gordichuk.

“The average lifespan for carts is around 10 years… They’re long past their life expectancy.”

He suspects a recent policy change may also be increasing demand for new carts. In March, city council approved a hike to the per-home annual garbage fee, raising it from $93 to $254 in 2025 (prorated to $190.50).

The new fee now covers the cost to replace carts the city determines were damaged by residents themselves, which was previously charged to the homeowners, Gordichuk said.

“A lot of people might have held off making claims back then.”

Coun. Ross Eadie, chairman of city council’s water and waste committee, said the wait “sucks” for residents.

“What I’m disappointed about is the customer who is paying for service, who shouldn’t have to wait 25 (business) days,” said Eadie (Mynarski).

The councillor said the city should have proactively ensured it could keep up with replacing its aging bins.

“There is oversight and planning (needed) for a situation where we’re going to have thousands of carts … replaced in a year,” he said.

“What I’m disappointed about is the customer who is paying for service, who shouldn’t have to wait 25 (business) days.”

The city says those waiting for new carts should still receive garbage collection.

Regular cart pickups can continue, if the cart is deemed usable. If it’s not, people can sign up for manual collection by calling 311.

As an alternative, those who own a vehicle large enough to transport their damaged cart can drive it to 1120 Waverley St. to exchange it for a new one during business hours.

Residents can take that option as long as they’ve reported the issue to 311 and can provide their case number, said Gordichuk. That should greatly speed up the process, since exchanges are possible within about a day of securing the case number, he said.

The city asks those affected by the delay to be patient for now.

“I understand the frustration. Just be patient with us. We’re working through it and you know we’ll look after this as fast as we can,” said Gordichuk.

Eadie said he’s concerned Winnipeggers with the lowest incomes will struggle most with the delay, since they are least likely to own vehicles large enough to swap their damaged carts with new ones.

“I understand the frustration. Just be patient with us.”

“This doesn’t work great in the inner city or wherever anybody’s living in … poverty,” he said.

The city hopes to eliminate the delivery backlog by “no later than April,” Gordichuk said. A plan is now being worked out to deliver more carts each day, though details aren’t finalized yet, he said.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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