Some Woodstock Residents Received a Mailer About Garbage Collection Changes

Monday, 27 April 2020 11:45

Several Woodstock residents received a mailer from Oxford County about changes coming to garbage and recycling collection starting on May 4th that will NOT impact residents of Woodstock or SWOX.

WOODSTOCK - Several Woodstock residents received a mailer from Oxford County.

The mailer was talking about the changes coming to garbage and recycling collection starting on May 4th. To clear up any confusion Those changes do not impact the City of Woodstock or South-West Oxford and the mailer was clear about that. Oxford County Director of Public Works David Simpson explains why some Woodstock residents received the pamphlet.

"With Canada Post doing our mailers, we deem that to be the most cost effective way to get the message, the problem with that is the bulk postal drops are by postal code and they do not recognize municipal boundaries. There is certainly some Woodstock residents who received our communication because they share the same postal code with other municipalities of the County. None of our changes in our curb side recycling program will impact the City of Woodstock residents, as there curb side collection is run by city operations on behalf of Oxford County, so accordingly the City of Woodstock blue box program remains a two stream recycling program that is collected once every two weeks."

Woodstock Mayor Trevor Birtch says he wanted to clear up any confusion for residents.

"Unfortunately this is another instance where Oxford County Waste Management changes, effecting our neighbours in surrounding municipalities, has been communicated to our residents and has resulted in confusion for the Friendly city. Although we use the County's landfill site, we have our own system of waste management in Woodstock. All city collection for garbage and recycling remains unchanged. For those who have tried calling with questions or concerns, the 1-866 phone number is unfortunately not operational; and I have been informed by the County Administrator that they are investigating."

The new curbside collection will start for residents of Oxford County, excluding SWOX and the City of Woodstock next Monday May 4th. Some of the big changes in the program include:

- Pick-up days for curbside collection will change for approximately 3,000 customers in Ingersoll and Tillsonburg as a result of newly revised collection routes.

- Pick-up times may change along the newly revised collection routes, so all customers are reminded to make sure garbage and recycling are placed at the curb before 7 a.m. to ensure pick up.

- Plastic film products like plastic bags, plastic wrap or film packaging, and Styrofoam products like takeout clamshells, meat trays and cups are no longer accepted in the blue box. (Large and bulky Styrofoam residential drop-off will continue to be available once the drop-off facilities are cleared to re-open to the public after COVID-19).

For a full list of changes to what can or cannot be placed in the blue box, visit wasteline.ca. Residents can also use the "What Goes Where" tool available through the Wasteline app or wasteline.ca.