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Old 03-10-2012, 10:34 PM   #21
Jake
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The green bin has been around in Vancouver for some time now... honestly I disagree with the 60% reduction from the black bin figure... for me it's more like 10%, but I have no yard waste, only food waste. Even if I did have yard waste, I don't think it would be 60%.
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Old 03-10-2012, 10:48 PM   #22
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They implemented this in St.Albert last June. You can wrap stuff in newspaper to help absorb odor. I find that we fill up the food waste container once a week. So in terms of waste reduction...it's maybe 20%. But that is better than nothing. Here they collect the green bins once a week in summer and biweekly in the winter. Truth be told they could collect green bins one every 4 weeks in the winter. I wish they would alternate weeks with green bin and brown in collection though. If you live in a cul de sac, it can be hard to find a meter between bins and not block your driveway.
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Old 03-10-2012, 10:50 PM   #23
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Would be nice to get a green bin to with our blacks here in High River.
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Old 03-10-2012, 11:44 PM   #24
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No - the organics in the landfill basically don't break down. I saw some pictures taken from some holes dug in a local landfill - there were lawn clippings from the 1970's that looked like they were mowed yesterday and newspapers that were still readable after 30 or more years.
Sounds like archeological treasures. Why would we want to take this away from fiture generations?
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Old 03-11-2012, 03:17 AM   #25
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My condo association has no interest in setting up a recycling program of any kind. None.

As someone who lives in a highrise condo and who recycles, I find it a huge inconvenience to do this since adopting a condo-living lifestyle. Yet I still do it. Whenever I drop off my recycling--which is about once a week because I don't like to store it--a third of the time the recycling depots are packed. I take that as a sign that other people who don;t have access to the bin program recycle too, which is a good thing. But it annoys the crap out of me, and I find myself tossing some recyclables into my garbage chute more and more.

Once upon a time I composted when I had a yard, and thought it was a good thing . . . even kind of fun. I seemed to suck at it and my compost took two-three years to turn to dirt, but it limited my garbage to almost nothing.

I really wish I had access to any sort of bin program.

My fiancee lives in a house and it seems like a slick process. She has no interest in recycling or composting, but has gotten on board due to the convenience and would easily get into composting with a green bin.
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Old 04-20-2012, 07:04 PM   #26
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It's been approximately 6 weeks since I began participating in the Green Bin Pilot Project and I thought I'd chime back with my thoughts.

Well, I am very pleased and I think it's a great add on to our recycling and garbage system here in Calgary.

I have been using the "odorless" kitchen pail that I keep under my kitchen sink and I have no complaints. The odor issue is minimal and only slightly noticeable when opening the cabinet door and opening the pail when depositing food scraps. I have found that there is almost no odor when opening the cabinet door to get at the windex or comet or what ever I store under the kitchen sink. To be clear, I have scraped all kinds of food into this thing, from fish, meat, pasta, veggies, coffee grounds.. pretty much everything. I'm actually astounded as to how non offensive the odor is coming out of the kitchen pail as I figured this was going to be gross and not practical at all.

The Bin and the supplied giant "grocery" bags for yard waste have been awesome. I am now at the point where I have about 10% of my spring clean up left to do and I will fill the bin and a few bags this weekend and then I will be finished. I have put out the bin along with multiple bags on a few occasions and every time they were picked up. I half expected to see a notice with a 2 bag minimum or something like that as I thought I might be pushing it, but nothing as of yet. I did some pruning and a lot of raking last week and put out the bin along with five bags...no issues.

The fact that I have had my garbage (black bin) reduced to an every two week pick up has had no effect, in fact, I have not changed my kitchen garbage bag in about 3 weeks (gross, I know) so I think this green bin, along with the blue recycling bin is actually working quite well.

As I stated previously, I thought this might be a major pain but I committed to giving this a chance and I am ultimately very pleased with the experience and I think it's a good idea.

My only question would be; How many giant grocery bags do I get per year and when are they dropped off, ie spring? fall? ....because they get used up pretty quickly with yard clean up.

Green Bin: two thumbs up!
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Old 04-20-2012, 08:48 PM   #27
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Nice summary, I feel the same way. The bags, I don't think the city will supply anymore, at least that's my guess. Speaking of compostable bags, I have not seen many varieties for sale, and the ones I've seen are fairly pricey. If the city does not supply the bags, some people might stop using the green bin/pickup which would be a shame.
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Old 04-20-2012, 09:25 PM   #28
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My problem with this whole program is every time we add a bin the cost of waste disposal goes up. If these programs are effective it should cost us less to recycle and compost. It is a myth that there isnt any space for garbage dumps. It just a matter of cost and hauling distance.

So step one is to include all costs for waste disposal including capital costs then give people the option to join into these other programs to save money if they want to. Right now it costs us more to have these programs the to just dump it in the land fill. This does not make sense

Even if it saved money i would always want the ability to opt out. How much do i have to pay to not participate.
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Old 07-31-2014, 04:47 PM   #29
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Thought I'd give this a bump.

2 + years of using the green bin and I still think its a great idea.

A couple of things have changed with my usage since I started using the bin, bags, kitchen pail etc.

#1 I got tired of the kitchen pail and it did become a nuisance so I got rid of it and now I just use the green biodegradable bags every time I prepare or clean up after a meal and then toss them straight into the bin. I thought long and hard about how I could put the kitchen pail to use in some other way around the house and after coming up empty with ideas I finally tossed it into the blue bin.

#2 I have 2 small dogs and I routinely put the yard cigars into the bin, no bag, just straight into the bin.

#3 I have received a few pamphlets from the city with regard to great tips on how to put the green bin and accessories (pail, biodegradable bags, large paper yard bags) to use around the house but never once has there been a mention of a periodic drop off of yard bags or the little green bags. Also no mention of where one can find replacements of these bags.

Overall I'm still loving the green bin idea and it has made yard work so much easier and I like the idea of easily compostable (sp?) organic material going to the right place and being put to good use. If I have one complaint it would be the issue of replenishing the bag(s) supply.

PS; I know I can purchase the big paper yard bags at Canadian tire but I honestly have no idea where to get the little biodegradable "food/poop" bags.

Edit: Also need to mention that I still have a few months worth of green bags left from the original delivery over 2 years ago, they do give you a shwack!

Last edited by Methanolic; 07-31-2014 at 04:51 PM.
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Old 07-31-2014, 05:29 PM   #30
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They started the green bin program in Airdrie in April, right before we moved here. We really utilize the program. It's very handy, and I have the small bucket on the kitchen counter, and have experienced no issues with smell. Our yard is small enough that it doesn't fill up the bin at all. There is a massive list they gave us, of stuff that can go in there. It has really cut down on the amount of garbage going to the curb.

We use these small bags, and have found them just about everywhere (Co-op, Superstore, Sobeys, and even Costco sells something similar -




I'd love if they started the blue bin and black bin program here.
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Old 08-01-2014, 07:36 AM   #31
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Awesome.

Thanks for that, I'll keep my eye open for these.
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Old 08-01-2014, 08:30 PM   #32
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They started the green bin program in Airdrie in April, right before we moved here. We really utilize the program. It's very handy, and I have the small bucket on the kitchen counter, and have experienced no issues with smell. Our yard is small enough that it doesn't fill up the bin at all. There is a massive list they gave us, of stuff that can go in there. It has really cut down on the amount of garbage going to the curb.

We use these small bags, and have found them just about everywhere (Co-op, Superstore, Sobeys, and even Costco sells something similar -




I'd love if they started the blue bin and black bin program here.

We use the same bags. All of Greater Victoria has this . The bins for in house are small. Just leave it out side your back door or Patio door. I don't get people being worried about the smell of another bin. Its still going to smell if you put it into your garbage . your garbage is usually a bigger container that sits in your house for more than a day or two. The indoor bins are only big enough for a day mabey two days of food scrapes then you just empty it into your larger bin. To me a lot of people opposed to it seem lazy. "I don't want to sort it out. I just want to pile It in one spot."
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Old 08-01-2014, 08:39 PM   #33
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The green bin has been around in Vancouver for some time now... honestly I disagree with the 60% reduction from the black bin figure... for me it's more like 10%, but I have no yard waste, only food waste. Even if I did have yard waste, I don't think it would be 60%.
I think the 60% comes from surveying people who throw every thing in the garbage and don't recycle at all. Like Wood products . With these green bins you can throw out things like tissue paper/paper towels and cotton products .

Last edited by combustiblefuel; 08-01-2014 at 08:42 PM.
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Old 08-02-2014, 09:01 PM   #34
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I'm running out of places to keep all my bins.
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Old 05-30-2016, 09:06 AM   #35
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Just wanted to say I'll be putting my green bin in my black bin when I receive it. I wasn't asked if I wanted it and would have put it to much more use if I was given the choice to take a green bin cause it's good for the environment.

The most frustrating thing is that black cart pickup will only be every second week and the cost on that will not be getting reduced or cut in half.

imo this is a money grab by the city.
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Old 05-30-2016, 09:25 AM   #36
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Just wanted to say I'll be putting my green bin in my black bin when I receive it. I wasn't asked if I wanted it and would have put it to much more use if I was given the choice to take a green bin cause it's good for the environment.

The most frustrating thing is that black cart pickup
will only be every second week and the cost on that will not be getting reduced or cut in half.

imo this is a money grab by the city.
I have lived in two cities - Halifax and Ottawa - that had green bins. My experiences:

Halifax: moved there and this was already operational. Thought it would be a pain; in fact it was the opposite. Barely any garbage; most stuff went into recycling and green bin. Put one of those metal buckets under the sink, and had zero problems. No smell etc.

Ottawa: moved when it was same state as here in Calgary - bringing them in, had just had a couple of areas trial it. Same issues as you quoted - garbage pick only twice a week, how will we survive?; stinky; animals will get in and eat everything and make a mess; etc etc. City overall grew to love it. Garbage went down significantly for most people. Animals got into it BUT to the same extent of what happened with people's garbage.

In sum? Having been skeptical of this, but having lived in 2 separate cites across canada that had it, it was a terrific experience.
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Old 05-30-2016, 09:31 AM   #37
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Chestermere has had them for a while and I agree, it's a great experience. We don't even get a black bin, we have green and blue for compost and recycle, and we're allowed a single clear garbage bag (clear so they can confirm we aren't throwing out compostables or recyclables lol).

It's also nice not to have to pre-sort my recyclables. When I took it to the recycle stations it all had to be separate.
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Old 05-30-2016, 09:31 AM   #38
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I have lived in two cities - Halifax and Ottawa - that had green bins. My experiences:

Halifax: moved there and this was already operational. Thought it would be a pain; in fact it was the opposite. Barely any garbage; most stuff went into recycling and green bin. Put one of those metal buckets under the sink, and had zero problems. No smell etc.

Ottawa: moved when it was same state as here in Calgary - bringing them in, had just had a couple of areas trial it. Same issues as you quoted - garbage pick only twice a week, how will we survive?; stinky; animals will get in and eat everything and make a mess; etc etc. City overall grew to love it. Garbage went down significantly for most people. Animals got into it BUT to the same extent of what happened with people's garbage.

In sum? Having been skeptical of this, but having lived in 2 separate cites across canada that had it, it was a terrific experience.
What's your response to not getting a reduction on our bills for black cart pickup? Why the $6.50 in additional charges?
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Old 05-30-2016, 09:33 AM   #39
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Chestermere has had them for a while and I agree, it's a great experience. We don't even get a black bin, we have green and blue for compost and recycle, and we're allowed a single clear garbage bag (clear so they can confirm we aren't throwing out compostables or recyclables lol).

It's also nice not to have to pre-sort my recyclables. When I took it to the recycle stations it all had to be separate.
When I hear this it makes it sound like 90% of household garbage can go into blue or green bins. Is that about right? I always tried to make sure I don't put un-recyclables in the blue bin.
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Old 05-30-2016, 09:33 AM   #40
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Just wanted to say I'll be putting my green bin in my black bin when I receive it. I wasn't asked if I wanted it and would have put it to much more use if I was given the choice to take a green bin cause it's good for the environment.

The most frustrating thing is that black cart pickup will only be every second week and the cost on that will not be getting reduced or cut in half.

imo this is a money grab by the city.
you're that guy, eh.
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