Some public Colwood garbage cans have been opened again for use just a few weeks after the City closed them to help limit the spread of COVID-19.
At the end of March, Colwood issued a public statement reminding residents to take their garbage home with them when a bin is closed. Some residents, however, weren’t getting the message as many bags of dog poop and litter were spotted in a Colwood park on March 30.
At the time, Colwood Mayor Rob Martin told Black Press Media that the City chose to close garbage cans in order to protect city staff and lower the risk of transmission. However, with the amount of litter, workers were then forced to “engage with every single poo bag or piece of trash individually” in order to pick it up.
READ ALSO: Colwood looks at reopening garbage cans as litter, dog poop pile up in parks
Martin said if the people littering “truly understood the danger they were putting others in, they wouldn’t be doing it.”
He also added that it was clear to the City that some strategic garbage cans needed to be re-opened due to all of the litter.
On April 24, a tweet from the City of Colwood included a photograph of an open garbage can at a park along with the caption “Signs of the times.” A notice on the garbage can reminds residents to stay home, keep physical distance and wash hands.
Martin re-tweeted it and said most Colwood garbage cans have been re-opened. He called it “a small step towards normalcy.”
In other words, it’s a small step towards normalcy!
— Rob Martin (@MayorRobMartin) April 25, 2020
We have reopened most of the @cityofcolwood garbage cans.#goodnews we’ll take what we can get! https://t.co/qx5sOUPFng
-With files from Kendra Crighton