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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 16, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager GeenCart glitches The success or failure of last week's launch of Halton's highly-touted GreenCart program appears to depend on who you talk to -- the service provider, or the end user. Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr trumpeted a 75 per cent participation rate (see page 17) in the new initiative that sees kitchen scraps destined for Halton's landfill, instead collected at the curb for composting. Despite, Carr's glowing review of the program's kickoff last week -- "With so many residents already engaged in the GreenCart program, we are well on our way to achieve our goal of diverting 60 per cent of waste away from the landfill"-- struck a nerve with some residents who found themselves waiting as long as four days for garbage pickup promised under the Region's new waste collection schedule. In addition, the contractor hired by the Region Miller Waste Systems, has issued a letter apologizing for any delays in pickup for the first week of the program. While a certain amount of startup glitches and miscommunication are expected when undertaking a project of this magnitude, we wonder if Halton Region wasn't adequately prepared to rollout the GreenCarts across a region of more than 440,000 people. Early indications from Carr are that the company contracted by the Region for GreenCart, Blue Box and garbage collection, simply wasn't prepared for the high volume of GreenCart compliance in the first week of the program. While the Region's efforts to encourage participation in GreenCart are admirable, it appears not enough thought was dedicated to ensuring the first days of this new era in Halton's waste management plan would come off without a hitch. We only hope that those residents whose garbage, Blue Boxes or GreenCarts were not collected on time last week will be patient enough to stick with the GreenCart program. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Miller Waste VP apologizes for GreenCart pickup delays As Senior Vice President of the Miller Group, I wanted to take the opportunity to express our appreciation to the residents of Halton for their patience as the new waste management collection process rolled out the week of April 7. In our 47 years of business, Miller Waste Systems has never seen such unprecedented participation rates in the roll out of a new waste management program, nor the volumes of material set out for collection. In many ways, this is a good news story ­ that residents of Halton are aligned with the Region's goal of diverting material from the landfill, reducing green house gas emissions, and the GreenCart program. The Region has promoted "More Blue and Green for a Better Planet" and Halton residents complied in record-setting numbers. As an example on Sunday, April 13, Miller Waste Systems collected more than 200 tonnes of yard waste and approximately 220 tonnes of Blue Box materials. The strong participation rates on the part of residents did lead to a number of start-up issues. I want to assure the residents of Halton Region that Miller Waste Systems is committed to resolving the delays in waste collection and to ensuring service levels meet the expectation of residents. Among the actions we are taking include: · Additional trucks and manpower to address the high volume of materials · Extra supervision of routes to ensure that all routes are collected and there is no carry over to the next day · Working with the Region to monitor and benchmark our performance to measure improvement in service levels Miller Waste Systems was proud to have been selected as Halton Region's waste collection contractor and we are committed to ensuring a more efficient and effective service in the weeks and months to come. BLAIR MCARTHUR SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT THE MILLER GROUP Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council.The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. 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