After a series of mechanical issues which have caused the City to miss weekly garbage pickups, Nanaimo officials say they will move to a new, simpler annual garbage schedule.

Residents and businesses will now be assigned one day a year where the city will pick up their recycling, organics, and garbage.

The new plan comes after a Council-initiated study recommended the changes. The study cost $49 million and will be paid for from both the savings from the previous pickup schedule and via property tax increases.

“We think this will be a much simpler way of handling the collection,” explained city utilities manager Congolia Breckenridge. “You only have to worry about one day each year where you need to put your bins out.”

The city also says the new schedule should significantly reduce worker injuries and save money on truck fleet costs, given that they will only be in operation one day each year.

This week marked the third in which the city had issues picking up garbage on the regular weekly schedule, causing many residents to flood city phone lines.

In the event that the city trucks miss your annual pickup day, city staff recommend simply leaving the bins out until the same date on the following year.

Rather than having different streets be on different days, city staff have set the pickup day for all residents and businesses to be December 25th, as there will be an increase in wrapping paper that day.

“This way,” explained Breckenridge, “There’s no confusion about ‘which day is ours’ and ‘did that holiday shift everything forward?’ Now, it’s all on one day for everyone. This makes perfect sense.”

Residents on the optional $99/mo “extra services” plan will continue to be able to simply call any time 24/7 to get their garbage picked up within the hour.