A resident in a southwest neighbourhood is getting fed up with the city's garbage collectors and is struggling to understand why they wouldn’t pick up one bag.
Graeme Zeiler says he finished his spring cleanup three weeks ago and left out four bags of grass clippings to be picked up.
Zeiler says that garbage collectors came by but they only picked up three of the four bags.
He says he complained to the city on numerous occasions and also tried to contact his ward councillor but received no response.
"This week for the third time I left the bag out on the curb with a full black bin again and they didn't collect it and they left a tag on my garbage can but nothing checked off to say what the problem was," said Zeiler.
Zeiler says he is following the guidelines set out by the city for pickup and he doesn’t understand what the problem is.
“It’s frustrating because I’m really growing to hate garbage day because I know not everything is getting collected and I don’t know what to do,” said Zeiler.
“It’s my understanding that the bag that was left behind, it could have been a number of reasons why, maybe be it placement or weight. Generally we ask if a bag is overweight, you can tell by picking it up, and if we can pick it up with one hand comfortably then we’ll collect it,” said Brent Baksza Superintendent of collection at Spyhill Landfill.
Baksza says they did get the bag collected this week and issue has since been resolved.
Zeiler says he also finally heard back from his area councillor on Wednesday morning saying they would look into the issue but he says there needs to be more accountability.
“No one contacts you to find out what’s happening, what’s going on. No one seems to want to know what’s happening, it’s just simply a dead end,” said Zeiler.
The city says they are experiencing a high volume due to spring cleanup but that they do strive to give the best service possible.
For more information on the city’s garbage collection policies, visit the City of Calgary website.
(With files from Kathy Le)
