Pushback from the community won the day to trash the proposal to reduce black (trash) bin collection to every other week.

The potential of Cochrane's trash not being accepted by City of Calgary landfills in 2020, an implied penalty of up to $80 per household by Calgary and an immediate cost savings of $1.70 per month per household plus further considerations for people with special needs was not enough to sway town council from voting down the proposal.

Last night, town council voted 5-2 to drop the matter. Tara McFadden and Susan Flowers voting in favour of moving forward while the rest gave the thumbs down.

The majority of the council sided with from the community backlash that the savings of $1.70 per month from their recycling bill was not worth the inconvenience of the measure. Mayor Jeff Genung's concerns were slightly different and more universally concerned with how the town communicates with residents.

The majority of councilors believe it is possible to handle household trash with a biweekly pickup, including Alex Reed, who says between recycling and organics disposal he only needs to put out his trash bin every four to six weeks. But they weren't ready to take a stand.

"As much as I want to be supportive of all this I don't think the kind of backlash and what our community is saying is worth $1.70 a month per household," said Reed.

Morgan Nagel, a long opponent to the proposal also admitted it was possible but believed council should side with public opinion.

Councillor Patrick Wilson was completely unimpressed with the financial savings that would result from the change and believes residents are of the same opinion. This, he said, was the only thing holding him back from supporting the change he sees as inevitable.

Wilson also took a shot at the City of Calgary, where our trash is delivered, for what he implied was a double standard on garbage sorting. He's willing to wait and see what happens in 2020 with Calgary's threat of a penalty and deal with it when the time comes.

"I don't think we know the answer to that and I don't think Calgary is even following their own standards which is so obnoxious and such a head-scratcher. Why we would go over and above their standards is crazy to me."

Councillor Tara McFadden was baffled as to why the town would not take the measure and give residents immediate savings, especially when over 50 per cent of residents already met the target. 

"Already half of the population is managing to meet the targets and to ask 50 per cent of our population to pay more when they're doing what they need to because their neighbours won't seems inherently unfair."

"I think we all want to pride ourselves in managing our taxpayers' dollars properly and tightly and I wouldn't imagine another situation where we would ever say I don't care about saving people money. This is a rare opportunity to be able to extend people services, they're paying for what they need and we're reducing their costs to have a basic service in town.

"I get there are going to people who say they are not happy, I've certainly heard from them, but I've also heard a lot from people who have managed to change and have been meeting the change and that they are asking their government to be leaders and not followers, so I'm completely content to champion this. It's where we need to go. It helps both our environment and our bottom line as families in Cochrane."

Mayor Jeff Genung believes it's possible to go to biweekly pickup but he is concerned with how the public perceives the proposal. For example, he believes actions like analyzing 9,000 trash bins in town, then attaching notes pointing out shortfalls was not well received and the town came across as being "Garbage Police" despite the intention to inform and educate people. He was also vastly disappointed with the failure of his "Mission Impossible" initiative, another educational piece to prove it's possible to live with a biweekly pickup.

"For me, I'm going to vote against this, not because I don't think it's a good idea, not because I don't want to save residents money, but I think we really need to look at how we're messaging."

With last night's vote, the issue will likely be dropped for a year or two. Believing town administration has done everything reasonably possible to prove it can be done and it can save residents money, Chief Administration Officer Dave Devana asked council to set aside the issue because there are other pressing priorities.

If this is going on the backburner, it appears trash talk may literally be uttered during the 2021 municipal election.