Four bag garbage limit comes into force next week

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By Nick Seebruch

CORNWALL, Ontario – On Oct. 5, the City of Cornwall lowered the garbage bag limit to four per household from six, but left a grace period where residents were still allowed to put out up to six bags of garbage. On Monday, Feb. 1, the grace period ends and the four bag garbage limit will come into force.

For the sake of the limit, the City of Cornwall defines a garbage bag as follows:

Bags designed for use as garbage bags measuring a maximum of 106 cm x 120 cm. Garbage can not exceed 27 kgs (60lbs) per bag.

If a household chooses to put out garbage cans instead of bags, then they are limited to two 136 L (30 gal) containers or less that have 2 handles; garbage can not exceed 27 kgs (60lbs) per container.

READ MORE: Four garbage bag limit starts this week

The goal of the bag limit is to encourage households to recycle and divert garbage from the landfill.

The City of Cornwall landfill has roughly 15 years of use left in it, with costs just to close and maintain the site expected to exceed $36 million.

The City offers the following tips to residents looking to reduce the number of items they put in the trash:

  1. Start with your shopping habits. Consider buying less or buying items that can be recycled.
  2. Increase your recycling efforts – chances are, there are recyclables in your trash. Use the Recycle Coach app to check whether your waste is recyclable.
  3. Consider backyard composting.
  4. Be aware of items that must go directly to the landfill – such as household hazardous waste items, and bulky items.

Those who need to put out more bags beyond the four bag limit can by tags from the City of Cornwall. The tags are sold in sheets of 10 for $15 each. Having a tag on garbage bags that are in excess of the limit will ensure that those bags are still collected as well.

The City of Cornwall sells bag tags at the following locations:

  • City Hall (currently closed due to COVID-19)
  • the landfill – 2590 Cornwall Centre Road
  • Pop Shoppe – 101 Emma Avenue
  • Short Line Convenience – 1300 Second Street West
  • Fence Depot – 3045 Pitt Street
  • TAS Convenience – 1001 Montreal Road

The city plans on further reducing the bag limit to two per household on April 5, 2021.

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