City of Hamilton tries to put a lid on waste containers controversy

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Published October 26, 2021 at 6:42 pm

No, Hamilton residents will not have to remove the lids on solid waste containers in order to have their garbage picked up.

The City of Hamilton sent a pair of tweets on Tuesday afternoon (Oct. 26) in an attempt to contain possible misinformation about garbage collection. Reports claimed that residents will have to remove lids that are “readily seperable” from waste containers before they place them curbside or face a $200 fine.

The city said that is not the case. It said the lids can stay on, but must not secured in place with other devices, such as twine or a brick, which some residents do to foil raccoons and other rodents.

“In accordance with the by-law, lids on garbage and yard waste cans must be readily separable from the container and any devices used to secure lids must be removed prior to collection.

“To clarify, this means that lids need to be removable, but do not need to be removed for collection.”

The conclusions stemmed from a bylaw amendment that was passed during the Oct. 18 public works committee meeting. That amendment will be up for ratification during the full council meeting on Wednesday morning (Oct. 27).

The wording in both a staff report that was submitted at that meeting, and an attached appendix, appear to uphold the city’s clarification.

On page 5 of a six-page staff report approved by Angela Storey, the director of waste management in the Public Works Department, it states: “Appendix ‘A’ attached to Report PW20066(a) also includes if any container has a lid, the lid must be readily separable from the container, and any devices used to tie down or secure any lids must be removed by the resident prior to collection.”

The aforementioned appendix repeats the same language on the second-last of three pages.

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