May 21, 2009 - Garbage: Who's Responsibility Should It Be to Ensure that Downtown is Kept Clean?

With the strike approaching its sixth week mark, it's long overdue for downtown residents, employees and business owners to start thinking about garbage clean-up.

Though the downtown Windsor BIA has attempted to keep downtown Windsor as clean as possible, with a three-person clean team sweeping the streets everyday, who's responsibility should it be to keep the downtown core garbage free during the strike?

There are five possible solutions to the current garbage situation in downtown Windsor.

The first being that the downtown community does nothing and continues to put the garbage at the curb and in the alleys, creating a health and safety issue.  With a growing concern for the Swine Flu and increased piles of garbage, firefighters and police officers may not be able to do their jobs in the case of an emergency.  Therefore, something has to be done.

Knowing that the City will not pick up your garbage during the strike, the second solution is for every business owner, resident and downtown employee to pitch in, making downtown Windsor clean, even during the strike. We all just have to do our part.

Let's start by ensuring that we do not dispose of our garbage on the street curb while there is a strike.  If you cannot keep it in your building, then find an alternative way of disposing of the garbage.  Placing garbage bags and recycling on the street curb reflects poorly on the downtown community and deters customers from wanting to visit and shop in the downtown.     

Have a conversation with your neighbouring businesses to arrange for a dumpster, hired pick-up or a pick-up truck to bring the garbage to one of three garbage disposal facilities, at a shared cost (City Suggestions).

The third option is that the Downtown Windsor BIA could pay for garbage pick-up for member businesses, which would be extremely costly and would constitute strike-breaking.

The fourth option is for the Downtown Windsor BIA to place dumpsters in several downtown areas and have member businesses dispose of their garbage in the specified bins.  This will become costly and inevitably, the bins will fill up with garbage from non-members. 

The last option is for the City of Windsor to deal with the current garbage situation in downtown Windsor internally.  In the summer of 2007, the City of Vancouver had a similar garbage situation when their workers went on strike.  Managers at the City of Vancouver took to the streets and changed the bags in the litter receptacles, to ensure that their city remained clean and attractive to visitors, said Charles Gauthier, Executive Director of the Downtown Vancouver BIA.  Though not perfect, Gauthier said the City's contribution helped maintain a cleaner downtown during a difficult time. 

During the strike it is extremely difficult to ensure that downtown Windsor stays litter free, however, a clean and attractive downtown is essential to a successful downtown.  Until the current situation can be resolved, businesses should work together to ensure that your businesses and the property in front of your businesses, remain clean.  Let's work together to get through this challenging situation!