Recycling still on hold, city focused on trash bin education

Recycling and the proper use of animal-resistant trash bins were topics raised at the Whitefish City Council meeting last week.

During the public comment period, Whitefish resident Toby Scott shared his experience with recycling. He said he has been driving to the Flathead County landfill to recycle since learning the recycling center at the snow lot closed. He then heard the city was going toward curbside recycling but that hasn’t panned out.

“I thought I would just bring it up… things to think about as far as recycling,” Scott said. “Bringing back the centralized area or picking up the recycling curbside thing, either way.”

Acting Deputy Mayor Steve Qunell said the council is working on recycling and that it is on the agenda for a future work session. Later, Councilor Rebecca Norton said that during their retreat, the council decided to put it on hold because they are still working on educating residents on the proper use of animal-resistant trash containers.

The council recognized there is a problem with residents failing to latch the new trash containers and some do not bring them out of the right-of-ways following pickup.

"Bears are back. Black bears have been spotted in town," said Whitefish City Manager Dana Smith. “And what we’re finding is that bear-resistant containers are being left out… they aren’t latching because people might fill them too full…"

Smith said the city is going to work to get information out about how they need to be latched.

Additionally, Smith said the city ordinance needs to be amended because it is currently confusing. It says animal-resistant containers should be unlatched on the day of service but Smith said that instruction does not apply to the type of containers being used in Whitefish and that Republic’s trucks are able to unlatch the bins.

Since animal-resistant bins cannot succeed unless they are latched, residents who do not latch the bins will be issued a warning first and then ticketed.

“The best way for people not latching it or overfilling it, is really through this citation process, (because) they aren’t following code,” Smith said. “But if there's a bag sitting outside the container, they [Republic] will charge an extra pickup. We pass that cost on to that homeowner.”