THUNDER BAY -- Residents of many apartment buildings and all businesses in Thunder Bay can continue to put out the same amount of garbage they've been permitted to for years, despite a pending reduction in the limit for city homeowners.
The new threshold for stand-alone households is two garbage containers at curbside instead of three, with implementation coming later this year.
Under the garbage by-law established in the early 1990s, apartment buildings of six units or more, as well as businesses, can dispose of up to 3.75 cubic metres of garbage, or 66 items [garbage bags] per week, and there will be no change to those guidelines.
Jason Sherband, manager of solid waste and recycling services for the City of Thunder Bay, says "there is no inter-linkage between single-family residence and multi-family residence. They're collected differently, and so that's why that item level is different."
Multi-residential buildings and industrial, commercial and institutional establishments "are on a shed-based system, which just means that our trucks are coming in and collecting from sheds," Sherband told tbnewswatch.com.
Sherband left open the possibility that changes might be made at some point. "As of right now, the item limit will be in place for single-family residences only, but not to say that in the future we wouldn't re-visit something. It's not something we're looking at doing at the moment."
He noted that any residential buildings of six units or more are required by provincial legislation to have a recycling program in place that's equivalent to the municipal program, and the city assists landlords in setting them up.
Apartment buildings with five or fewer units are considered residential, which means tenants of those structures must adhere to the same garbage limits as single residences.
Larger apartment buildings and businesses typically hire a private-sector garbage collector to dispose of their trash because their volume is not something the city's collection system will accommodate.
