Calgary’s green cart composting program to start in June 2017

[RedHot25]

This is awesome. I have lived in 2 cities - Halifax & Ottawa - that had this. Cut down my garbage to almost nothing, although as it is for a family of 4 we are lucky to throw out 1/4-1/2 of a black bin of garbage. I'm not really sure how some people on my street produce so much garbage otherwise...

Originally Posted by ken0042

That should be pleasant by day 13. They will be going to black cart collection every 2 weeks.

It won't or is so negligible you don't/barely notice. Ottawa was like Calgary - we were there when they brought the green bins in. People had same concerns: garbage will reek if only every 2 weeks, animals will get into green bins, etc etc you name it. About a week or 2 after collection started concerns were barely heard.

And what is great is that I assume, like most other places, Calgary will use the compost for its needs, and then sell any surplus to others. It really works out quite well.

[stampsx2]

Can't wait to come home after a hard days work and sort through my garbage. Can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night. So excited.

[photon]

Honestly after a few days it just becomes second nature. We have a bin under the sink with biodegradable bags for the compost stuff (which we take out to the green bin every few days), a large recycle bin in the walk in pantry that we typically have to empty into the big blue bin once to twice a week, and a regular garbage bin which hardly gets any use.

So instead of cleaning plates off into the garbage, we clean them off into the compost bag. I rinse pudding containers or sauce containers right away after they're empty and throw them into the recycle.

Cleaning up after one's self gets done anyway, sorting while doing it doesn't add any effort. The only real extra effort is cleaning off things that are going into the recycling that had food in them. Worst case I throw those into the dishwasher with the dishes lol.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by CarlLester

Just use your neighbour's bin

We already have some unknown neighbours using up our excess black bin space.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Can't wait to come home after a hard days work and sort through my garbage. Can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night. So excited.

lol. The horror. Taking your garbage can, dumping it out on your living room floor, and then sorting it. Or, take photon's approach (and everyone else with half a brain) and sort it as you produce it. Takes zero extra time, and keeps literally tons of stuff out of the landfill. What a drag.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Can't wait to come home after a hard days work and sort through my garbage. Can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night. So excited.

Is laundry a real nightmare for you as well?

[GGG]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Can't wait to come home after a hard days work and sort through my garbage. Can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night. So excited.

Then don't. Just throw everything in the black bin and any yard waste in the green one.

[Iceman90]

Originally Posted by edslunch

We already have some unknown neighbours using up our excess black bin space.

Get a fake security camera and put it in the alley or wherever your cart is.

[jwslam]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I really suspect if we start charging a per-bag fee for garbage that we'd end up with bags of garbage on the side of the road.

The fee would be on the purchasing side, not the pick up side. As in when you buy a box of 10 bags garbage bags at the store, i'll be $1 per bag instead of the $1/10 bags+ it currently is.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Except old furniture and construction waste...

Illegal dumpers, think twice: MD of Foothills to install cameras to catch roadside offenders near Calgary


Boo yah!

I hope Rockyview does this as well.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by jwslam

The fee would be on the purchasing side, not the pick up side. As in when you buy a box of 10 bags garbage bags at the store, i'll be $1 per bag instead of the $1/10 bags+ it currently is.

Foothills MD makes you buy their bags. They are a large black bag, about the size of those orange Glad garbage bags, but stronger. They have Foothills MD written on them in large white letters so it is easy to see if one is using the proper bag for garbage disposal.

Landfill sites and collection sites are only open for certain hours on certain days. The rest of the time they are locked.

A supervisor is present during the hours garbage may be dropped off and they can tell if you are using the right bags or not.

You buy the Foothills MD garbage bags from the supervisor, in packs of 10 for $20. At this point in time, there is no restriction on how much garbage you can dispose of.

[Jimmy Stang]

The city has already started their spring "community cleanups" where you can dump larger items that won't fit into your black bin.

Link

I'm already feeling guilty about dumping that old BBQ, but I don't think that they'll accept all of that old, corroded metal in the blue bin. At least this will save me a trip to the landfill or dismantling it and putting a few pieces in the black bin each week until it is gone.

[temple5]

All these problems would be solved with a simple cost/kg waste recycling model instead of charging everyone the same monthly fee whether the service is used or not.

Drop the base monthly fee to $1 and then charge $/kg for garbage/recycling/compost. If you want to promote compost and recycling then drop those $/kg fees.

[Ducay]

I don't disagree with better usage based fees, but as long as we have "public" accessible black bins, you can't charge for usage and not end up with a ton of issues between citizens.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

I'm already feeling guilty about dumping that old BBQ, but I don't think that they'll accept all of that old, corroded metal in the blue bin. At least this will save me a trip to the landfill or dismantling it and putting a few pieces in the black bin each week until it is gone.

I'd remove the non-metal parts and take it to somewhere like Calgary Metals. If that's all you have you can just drop it off, but if you have more metal you can get weighed in and make a couple of dollars. I think I got $12 for my hot water tank as opposed to paying $20 to take it to the dump. Plus unlike a community thing where it all goes into a big dumpster, this way you know the metal will get recycled.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Illegal dumpers, think twice: MD of Foothills to install cameras to catch roadside offenders near Calgary


Boo yah!

I hope Rockyview does this as well.

Some of the photos in that story are ridiculous.

What the hell is going through people's minds when they do this type of thing.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I'd remove the non-metal parts and take it to somewhere like Calgary Metals. If that's all you have you can just drop it off, but if you have more metal you can get weighed in and make a couple of dollars. I think I got $12 for my hot water tank as opposed to paying $20 to take it to the dump. Plus unlike a community thing where it all goes into a big dumpster, this way you know the metal will get recycled.

Thank you very much for this. I assumed that those places would only deal with industrial customers. I just called them to make sure and she just said "bring it on in!". I would much rather it get recycled than simply dumped in the landfill.

[Ducay]

FYI most of the community events have recylcing trucks there as well. They'll have trucks taking blue bin stuff, but mine always has someone taking metals, and someone taking electronics recycling as well. Plus a couple charities taking donatables.