Langford is having trouble putting a lid on some residents who are treating the city like a dump.
It seems that so much household garbage is being stuffed into the city’s trash cans along streets and in parks that the municipality may have to look at drafting a bylaw making it illegal, city staff say.
Langford has seen a huge spike in residents using the city garbage cans for household waste since the food-scrap ban at the dump was implemented on Jan. 1, says a city engineering report.
Langford Mayor Stew Young, who also owns Alpine Disposal and Recycling, doubts the food-scrap ban has much to do with it.
“I’m not exactly sure why there would be an uptake on it. Is it directly related to the food — scrap ban? I’m not sure. It’s maybe people deciding, ‘Hey, I’m going to find a cheaper way to get rid of my garbage,’ ” Young said.
Langford’s contractor, Victoria Contracting and Municipal Maintenance Corp., tracked the problem for a month and found that more than half — 88 of 156 public trash cans — had bags of household garbage and 76 of those were overflowing, with household bags of garbage that couldn’t be stuffed into the receptacles left on top or beside the city cans.
“People that deposit residential garbage in a receptacle are not breaking any laws as it is garbage, but it is not the intended use,” says a staff report to the city’s transportation and public works committee.
“Some municipalities have tried putting grates across the opening to limit the size of garbage to cups etc.; however, we are not convinced it will deter the practice,” the report says.
A combination of actions such as passing a bylaw making dumping household waste in city trash cans illegal and increasing the frequency of pickup might help stem the problem, it notes.
Young said “ripping open the bags” to try to identify the offenders would be a good idea.
“We have to keep our streets clean and we’ll have to up the service if required. But the other thing is that we’ll have to look at the people who are throwing the bags out and see if we can get some names on it. That usually deters it pretty quickly,” Young said.
One of the contributing factors may be that Langford, in an effort to reduce litter, installs more garbage cans than many other municipalities, Young said.
“We like to have more garbage cans to have [the city] nice and clean as part of the service. You’re always going to have some issues, no matter what. It’s just a matter of monitoring it.”
Meanwhile, Victoria Contracting and Municipal Maintenance Corp., which has a $75,902 contract for servicing and disposal of the waste from the city’s garbage cans on streets and in parks, is seeking another $16,118 to cover additional costs.
The report says illegal dumping remains an issue in Langford.
“There are many rural areas that abusers can get away with this practice unnoticed. We have worked with bylaw enforcement to install cameras to catch the perpetrators and deter this behaviour from continuing to limited success,” it says.
