Cochranites will soon learn whether or not they will continue to haul their black bins curbside weekly, as council is anticipated to vote on switching to biweekly garbage pick up in the next few weeks. Although heralded by administration as environmental stewardship, while aligning with Calgary's vision of zero waste by 2020, councillors are torn on whether the jump is the inevitable or too much too soon. Last fall during budget deliberations, council opted for increased public education and awareness before rushing to implement a change most felt would not be well received by the majority of residents – given that it had only been roughly six months since organics curbside pick up came online. This time, Fabrizio Bertolo, manager of waste and recycling and Rick Deans, senior manager of infrastructure services, delivered a presentation to council to "become the first community in Canada to achieve 80 per cent waste diversion," highlighting that roughly half of Cochrane residents are already in compliance with the organics program and diverting contaminants from landfill; that roughly half of residents are only filling their bins halfway since the green organics bins program began in spring of 2017; and that of the 9,100 black bins audited this summer, only 140 showed zero diversion effort. While Mayor Jeff Genung and Coun. Tara McFadden were in agreement that the looming inevitability that Calgary landfills could reject or fine Cochrane trash in two years if it contained compost materials, other councillors were concerned that not enough easement was in place for larger families, that the goal is unfair given the size of the town's black bins (half the size of Calgary's), that it was too soon and more public education was needed and too many residents simply wouldn't be on board at this time. "We've done the carrot. We've engaged, we've encouraged, we've done as much as you could to encourage a teenager to clean up their room. There's a group of residents that just don't want to until you get out the stick and start enforcing it," said McFadden, who feels the compassionate consideration for extra bags for larger families was an appropriate way to deal with bigger households who have diapers and produce more waste; administration is proposing families apply for this courtesy program every six months. Couns. Marni Fedeyko, Susan Flowers, Morgan Nagel and Pat Wilson shared their concerns. "It's easy for me now as a single person ... but I'm concerned about the stress it's going to put on people," said Flowers, who is troubled by the town's survey results that reveal comments from people concerned about how their larger families would adjust. "I think this may be a case where incentives are better than mandate," said Wilson. Coun. Fedeyko applauded the waste and organics team for its increased presence in schools, with focus groups and on social media but remains concerned, based on survey results, that some residents feel too rushed to change and that there is still some confusion. "I understand that going to a small bin once every two weeks is going above and beyond what the City of Calgary is doing," said Nagel, who is concerned that while Calgary has switched to biweekly trash pick up it has black bins twice the size of Cochrane households. "I don't want to ask people in Cochrane to go above and beyond what Calgary is doing in the name of us trying to be in compliance with the City of Calgary," added Nagel, who was the only councillor who voted against first reading on the basis that he would have preferred to see an extended public engagement phase and the consideration of larger black bins from administration. "This is coming. We're not going to be able to avoid this diversion ... the City of Calgary has the landfills and we don't have the option other than to truck it further," said Genung, countering Nagel by saying he does want to go above and beyond Calgary and be an environmental leader.
