By Walter Byj and Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. March 9, 2013 The Region of Halton decided to offer larger blue boxes to the community and published a schedule setting out where the new blue boxes were to be available.
Regional Chair Gary Carr did said in his media release that 95% of the single family homes in the Region make use of a blue box. Don’t think he expected quite the turnout at Corpus Christ High school on Upper Middle Road Saturday morning.
These cars are not lined up at a Timmie’s for coffee and some Tim-bits – they are sitting on Upper Middle Road waiting to get into Corpus Christi High school and pick up a free 22 gallon blue box. The car emissions will hurt the environment while the blue boxes will help heal it. Are we winning?
Our intrepid reporter Walter Byj was on the scene and reports: “The early bird may get the worm, but in the case of a new, free blue box, the early bird gets to line up and wait. Starting at 9:00 am Saturday morning until at least 12:00pm, lineups stretched from Corpus Christi High School to past Appleby Line as residents of Burlington patiently wait in their cars to pick up their larger blue bin.”
This is what those Saturday lineups were all about – larger blue boxes. Did you get one? If you live south of the QEW in Burlington where are you going to get yours?
“A wait time of 15 to 20 minutes would be a conservative estimate. Ironic that having people sitting in the vehicles with the engines running for 15 minutes as they inch along leads to significant car emissions while waiting to get a box that will permit more recycling.”
Walter Byj, the reporter on this story points out that f you live south of the QEW in Burlington – you ave a bit of a drive to get your bigger blue box. All seven Burlington city Councillors are also members of the Regional Council – perhaps they could do something to make it a little easier for the south of QEW folk.
Maybe Councillors Craven, Meed Ward, Sharman and Dennison could set up a pile of them on their front lawns and have people just drive by and help themselves.
Sometimes the best of plans run awry. It was a different scene at the Mohawk Racetrack, where the system was working extremely well. The lineup is less than 12 cars and one can be in and out in less than five minutes.
We approached Upper Middle Rd from Quinte St shortly before noon. We saw the huge line of cars in both directions, with police directing traffic at the entrance to Corpus Christie’s east parking lot. We decided instead to head South down Burloak and attend to our other errands on Saturday, rather than waiting what no doubt would have been quite a while to obtain 1 blue box.
The wait at 1 PM was much more the 15 minutes – rather then add emissions to the air. We parked and walked in and were told that no walk ups were allowed and to drive in. I asked about altenative from Halton staff and they said call 311 and a blue box would be sent in 5 days. I call 311 and they said this was untrue but some one would call be back in 3-4 business days. The cars on Upper Middle in both directions accounted at my quick count to over 120 with police officers directing traffic. This lack of coordination and conficting information does at best to show that this was poorly organized effort by the region for Burlington.
How ludicrous is this? I commend Mr. Salisbury on his initiative to walk to the distribution point to show that (a) he is conscientious enough to help in the recycling program, and (b) to avoid fouling the air with car emissions. To be told that walk-ups were not allowed was tantamount to a slap in the face.
Whoever came up that rule deserves a very hard slap on the wrist, and I would hope that the ass would rethink that mandate. Absolutely UNBELIEVABLE !!!!!
Anywhere I read information about the blue box pickup dates, it was clearly stated that walk-ups were not allowed. I imagine the region anticipated a large demand, this is why they decided to go with the drive-thru approach – drive in to the parking lot, show your I’D through your car window, a staff member opens your rear door or hatch and places the blue box in your car for you, and you drive out of the parking lot.