The practice of dragging garbage cans to the curb every week is almost certainly on borrowed time.
Although civic officials here haven't made that decision, it's hard to believe Delta won't soon follow the lead of other jurisdictions in Greater Vancouver and move garbage collection to every second week.
All Lower Mainland communities have been mandated to reduce the amount of material going to the landfill, so what better way to ensure that happens than to simply pick up less at the curb? OK, so it's not quite that easy, but it's clear that by introducing various ways to divert waste that Delta and other civic governments are not only trying to reach established goals but are setting the table for weekly garbage collection to disappear.
Some places, like Surrey, have already gone that route, while others, such as Vancouver, are poised to join the club.
It's highly unlikely the target set out in the region's Solid Waste Management Plan is attainable in Delta if every home is allowed to continue to put two cans at the curb weekly, so pick up every second week seems inevitable.
It's either bring in legislation to that effect or sit back and hope we're all conscientious enough to self-impose a single-can limit on ourselves. The latter is happening to a certain extent already, so it appears Delta is waiting for the various recycling initiatives to take hold before getting heavy handed with those that aren't on board.
By the time you put stuff in the blue bag, the yellow bag, the blue box, the green can and the yard waste bin, there shouldn't be a whole lot left to go into the ol' garbage can, so the need for two of them every week should be a moot point. At least that's the dream scenario for those over at municipal hall.
At some point they will have to go beyond voluntary reductions and put the hammer down on those that aren't catching on, but I suspect if they wait long enough most will already be on that page.
Even so, there will still be issues with an every second week collection schedule, including concerns that if you happen to miss it for any reason, it means you end up waiting a month between pick-ups. There will also be an expectation to see a corresponding drop in our utility bill.
There's no doubt Delta is taking the soft sell approach to what has the potential to be a prickly issue, but somewhere along the line you just know we're not going to be hearing the rumble of the garbage truck quite as often.
