Region of Queens considers more enforcement, collection to curb greybox garbage problem
Garbage piled up at one of the ‘greybox’ sites in Queens County. (Submitted)
Region of Queens officials plan to take action to curb the ongoing garbage problem in the county’s increasingly popular cottage country.
Councillors will vote on several recommendations at their June 25 meeting that they hope will mitigate chronic trash pileups and overflows at so-called “greybox” sites in areas such as Labelle and Molega.
There are about 40 greybox sites on or near private roads throughout the municipality. They consume half of the region’s garbage collection budget.
The private roads do not have the regular garbage pickup service of most property owners who live on public roads. So the municipality has dropoff sites throughout the region where residents can deposit their waste, recyclables and compostables.
The region picks up the garbage once a week in spring, fall and winter and either two or three times a week in summer months.
District 6 Coun. David Brown has a lot of recreational or cottage properties in his area. In January, he asked the region’s staff to come up with possible solutions to the refuse abuse.
Brown said that especially in the busier summer months, people regularly just toss their trash on the ground around the greyboxes, instead of putting it inside. They’ll also leave big household items like furniture at the sites, even though the municipal landfill is nearby.
Even non-residents regularly leave their garbage, compounding the problem. Some bring their trash in on Fridays and dump them at the sites when they visit their properties on the weekends.
“The bylaw says that those grey bins are for the residents of private roads only for bagged garbage, created on site,” Brown said. “And people who are spending the weekend and dumping everything on Sunday night as they leave, a lot of that stuff can be taken to the landfill.”
Region of Queens officials want to crack down on how people on private roads use greyboxes for their garbage. (Rick Conrad)
CAO Cody Joudry said he and other staff members have had many discussions about why the problem persists and how to fix it.
“At some of our worst sites, it starts to reach a threshold … at which it seems to overflow,” Joudry said. “And once one person does something, then all of a sudden everyone does it, sort of disrespect the whole thing.”
Joudry said staff suggest trying a few different things to see what works. He made five recommendations:
- install cameras to record when and how often the sites begin to overflow
- capture license plates of offenders and send notices to vehicle owners warning that further offences will result in fines
- add more greyboxes to see if it reduces the amount or frequency of overflows
- look for other locations where the boxes are less visible to non-residents
- increase the collection frequency at some locations from Dec. 1 to March 31.
Joudry said the region tried to install surveillance cameras at some sites years ago, but people stole them. He said staff have ideas about how to limit or prevent that from happening again.
Joudry said staff would report to council in mid-winter 2025 on the effectiveness of their efforts.
District 5 Coun. Jack Fancy said the areas have unreliable internet and cell service, so real-time surveillance may be difficult.
He said he’d also like to see an area for people to leave large items so they don’t get in the way of the greyboxes. He suggested a semi-annual “dump day” for people to drop large items, and to hold a roadside giveaway once a year.
“If we don’t get that big stuff moved out from in front of the bins, people are … going to throw their garbage down there and then somebody else throws the garbage there and then you’ve got the bins that aren’t even full, you can’t get at them becasue of the big items in front of them,” Fancy said.
Brown said that he hopes the situation will improve with some education and enforcement.
“We as a region allow people to take four loads to the landfill every month without charge. … So if somebody has taken the effort to load a chesterfield on the back of a truck and drive it out to the grey bin and throw it on the ground in front of the bins, it’s an extra 15 minutes to go to the landfill and dispose of it properly. … We need education and a little bit of enforcement and I think the problem will go away on its own.
“And I really applaud staff for coming through and trying an approach because for the past 10 years we have suffered from analysis paralysis. … This starts us on the approach to getting something done. And I think as word gets around that there’s some enforcment happening, people will not want to pay that $682.50 fine.”
The municipality says the extra measures could cost up to $40,000, with the majority of that going to increased weekly garbage collection in winter.
Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com
