It’s generally agreed that the county takeover of garbage collection in 2013 will effect a savings to Dufferin taxpayers, but there might be some wrinkles remaining to iron out.

The county’s Community Development did reach a consensus on several items last week. But the committee’s decisions have to be accepted at county council next Thursday evening, and some others have been left for further deliberation.

The certainty is that there is likely to be an ambitious educational program launched over the next 11 months, leading up to county-wide collections on Jan. 1, 2013.

Perhaps of major importance, countywide collection is likely to be of household solid waste in clear bags.

This is important because the hope is for green bin disposal of organics and blue box disposal of recyclables. In theory, said Public Works Director Trevor Lewis after the committee meeting, adherence to the rule should reduce “garbage” significantly.

But there is a downside to clear bags, even although the force people to follow the rules on recycling and composting: the garbage is open to public scrutiny, as well as to the eyes of the collector.

So Mr. Lewis said there will be some leeway allowed for perhaps a small black bag to be placed within the clear bag to avoid detection of what might be embarrassing items. He didn’t specify what those might be.

Numbers of allowed bags and collection frequency have thus far varied among municipalities. The committee agreed that there should be a standard of one bag/container on average per week, and that these should have a maximum specified size and weight.

But should that be once a week collection of a single bag/container, or bi-weekly college of two bags or containers? Also, should there be a difference in frequency of collection between urban and rural areas? If so, what constitutes an “urban” area?

The frequency of “garbage” collection remains to be resolved. But he said the organics and recyclables would be collected weekly. If organics are being Green Binned, there would be no odour from the solid waste (garbage). Disposable diapers would still be accepted in the garbage stream, but there’s hope that they would soon be treated as organics.

The frequency question, Mr. Lewis said, would depend on the financial implications. One consideration might be whether or not each collection vehicle could accommodate three waste streams: organics, recyclables and household solid waste (HSW).

In other garbage business, Dufferin is working with Navitus as something of a resource for the DEEP project but not as a co- proponent as was originally intended. In that respect, Community Development Committee chair Allen Taylor says Navitus is “working its way through the approvals process,” and getting favourable responses from prospective partners.

And Public Works Director Trevor Lewis says that, although plastics are not recyclable with the exception of plastic water bottles at Shelburne, the county has been researching a facility that has been producing oil from plastic.