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Old 03-10-2012, 02:11 PM   #1
Methanolic
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Default Ongoing Calgarians throwing things into the wrong bins thread

I live in Southwood and therefore am part of the "Green Bin" pilot project for recycling food and yard waste. My initial thoughts were, "Great! another Bin!" And I did not like the thought of "food waste" being stored in my kitchen or having to take it outside and deposit it into a bin.

Well, I have given this some thought and taken the time to read the literature that came with the bin and have decided to give this a go!

They tell me 60% of what gets thrown in my black bin is "food and yard waste" so now my black bin will be picked up twice a month vs 4 times a month. I will soon find out if this is true and I will soon find out if scraping my dinner plate into a pail will be something I can get accustomed to. Honestly, I recycle everything so my black bin really only gets put out into the alley once per month.

I am curious to see how this supplied "breathable, Odorless" kitchen pail they gave me actually works. Like I said, I was/am skeptical but have decided to give this a real chance.

Any other CPer's here part of this pilot project? If so, are you going to give this a go?

Thanks in advance. I am Very interested to hear what others think.
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Old 03-10-2012, 02:24 PM   #2
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I'm not in the pilot, but I think it's great. I compost and it reduces the amount of garbage by a huge amount. (Sounds like the green bin might be even better though if you can throw all food waste there).

I just wish the blue bins were rolled out to everyone before they started expanding programming in general.
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Old 03-10-2012, 02:27 PM   #3
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I'm not part of the pilot, but have been composting fruit/vegetable waste for years. I don't see having their pail as being any different than having a garbage can in the kitchen really - I suspect it would probably actually have less odour than a lot of typical under-sink garbage bags.

I think the City's mistake was making the black bins so large though - if they'd rolled the green bins and black bins out at the same time the black one could've been a lot smaller. Even now with a family of 4 our black bin is rarely more than half full, and that's mostly diapers plus about 1 bag of kitchen garbage per week. Once we get the green bin and the kids are out of diapers there'll hardly be anything going in the black bin.
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Old 03-10-2012, 02:30 PM   #4
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I've had mine for about a week, I like it. The little kitchen container fills up fast enough where odor is not a problem at all. The supplied bags are fragile but to be expected because they are designed to decompose quickly. One thing I don't like is the bin seems too small to me, even cutting the grass once will probably be way more material than what the bin holds.

The downside is now I have to buy paper bags for yard waste which will probably cost me more, same with the biodegradable kitchen bags. If anyone has a good source for these bags let us know.

Overall I think it's a great idea, but it's going to be up to people to make proper use of the various bins. What what I've seen in my neighbourhood, a lot of people just don't care they toss out all manner of things that should be recycled or disposed of properly.
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Old 03-10-2012, 02:33 PM   #5
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I remember doing this in Halifax 10 years ago

And I'm pissed that apartments keep getting the shaft. Am I wrong, or isn't it more cost effective to have recycling in apartments rather than neighborhoods?
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Old 03-10-2012, 02:35 PM   #6
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I've bought the compostable bags at the eco-store downtown. I think they're about $5 for a box of 20. I just buy a bunch at once and then get another bunch once a year or so.
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Old 03-10-2012, 03:03 PM   #7
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Can I just toss this green bin into my blue bin?
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Old 03-10-2012, 03:11 PM   #8
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Although I am sure that there will be a bunch of stay at home soccer moms who will hate this idea because of the smell or the inconvenience or something else like that, it keeps household waste out of the landfills which is good and on top of that the waste will actually go towards something productive in compost. I would love it if the city would help support community gardens by providing subsidized compost from this program which in turn helps provide families with healthy food as well.

I really don't see the downside.

Also the black bins they have are insanely big but there are some neighbors who somehow continually fill one up week after week.
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Old 03-10-2012, 04:18 PM   #9
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It'd be nice if they got around to the effing townhouse/condo communities with blue bins before they started added more projects. I'm getting so tired of driving to dumpy a$$ recylcing depots standing in windstorms at crowfoot or dalhousie while there's recycling and garbage flying around all over the place the bins are stuffed full and I have to manupulate every item I was to put in the bins or put a little in each bin. So tired of it that I've just started to dump my recyclables in the garbage. Well twice. . .
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Old 03-10-2012, 04:49 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zamler View Post

The downside is now I have to buy paper bags for yard waste which will probably cost me more, same with the biodegradable kitchen bags. If anyone has a good source for these bags let us know.

Probably the tipping point for me participating in this was that If my little "Green Bin" gets full, I can put the paper "Yard Waste" bags out to be picked up.

The paper bags supplied (20) will likely be used up quickly with spring clean up from all the leaves etc. in my yard but I am sure this pilot project will save me from driving to any land fill or leaf drop off.

With the property taxes I pay, I would expect that 20 bags be dropped off at my home every spring and every fall. This would definitely be incentive for me to continue with the Green Bin.
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Old 03-10-2012, 07:06 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ranchlandsselling View Post
It'd be nice if they got around to the effing townhouse/condo communities with blue bins before they started added more projects. I'm getting so tired of driving to dumpy a$$ recylcing depots standing in windstorms at crowfoot or dalhousie while there's recycling and garbage flying around all over the place the bins are stuffed full and I have to manupulate every item I was to put in the bins or put a little in each bin. So tired of it that I've just started to dump my recyclables in the garbage. Well twice. . .
That used to be a gear grinder for me, before the blue bins came along. I wished they would have just opened the whole bins instead of that tiny slot, where inevitably somebody would try to jam some giant piece of cardboard from their new flat panel tv, making it impossible for anybody else to slide their carboard into.
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Old 03-10-2012, 07:17 PM   #12
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I can't wait until we get the green bins up in the NW. We have been composting for a few years, but the rate at which our compost pile grows is faster than the rate of actually getting compost of out it. Also the rate at which we get finished compost is faster than our ability to make use of it. I guess this is more of a curse of having a small yard and a family that eats a lot of vegetables.

I find there isn't any smell associated with it, but we only have a small pail that we fill, and we move it before it starts getting funky. If its summer, once its in the compost pile, we throw a bit of dirt on top and that helps trap the odor somewhat.
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Old 03-10-2012, 07:27 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Methanolic View Post
The paper bags supplied (20) will likely be used up quickly with spring clean up from all the leaves etc. in my yard but I am sure this pilot project will save me from driving to any land fill or leaf drop off.

With the property taxes I pay, I would expect that 20 bags be dropped off at my home every spring and every fall. This would definitely be incentive for me to continue with the Green Bin.
That's the thing for me- unlike you I don't have 40 year old trees dropping leaves everywhere, so the few leaves I have get easily turned into mulch by the lawn mower. And because I do mulch my grass already, I don't have any other yard waste to put out.

Personally I don't see the value here. The recycling makes sense as a lot of those items we recycle won't break down for thousands of years. But won't the organics just break down within a year or two at most?
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Old 03-10-2012, 07:30 PM   #14
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The green bins will not match my house. I am going to paint mine a different color.
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Old 03-10-2012, 07:32 PM   #15
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I'd love the green bin just for grass clippings.

I find that the few times a year I do have an overflowing black bin, it's always due to yard cleans up,s leaves, sticks, grass, etc.

Serious question: can you put dog crap in the green bin?
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Old 03-10-2012, 07:41 PM   #16
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Serious question: can you put dog crap in the green bin?
Apparently it can:

Animal waste is accepted in the green cart; however, it must be collected in a compostable bag.
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Old 03-10-2012, 08:15 PM   #17
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WTF. They will have to pry my compost out of my cold dead hands.
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Old 03-10-2012, 09:23 PM   #18
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T
Personally I don't see the value here. The recycling makes sense as a lot of those items we recycle won't break down for thousands of years. But won't the organics just break down within a year or two at most?
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.
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Old 03-10-2012, 10:09 PM   #19
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If you`re going through the work of putting the stuff in a bucket under the sink and then taking it outside to dump it in the bin why wouldn`t people just dump it in a composter instead?
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Old 03-10-2012, 10:26 PM   #20
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If you`re going through the work of putting the stuff in a bucket under the sink and then taking it outside to dump it in the bin why wouldn`t people just dump it in a composter instead?
What the hell am I supposed to do with a foul smelling pile of rotting garbage in my back yard? I guess it would be one more things for my kids to get into...

I think this is a decent idea, but I really don't have room in my kitchen for a pail. My 2 year old would have it dumped on his sister's head in 5 mins after I left the room. I guess I could take all the chemicals and stuff out from under my sink and let them play with them instead, at least the child proof lids would take them a couple mins to open.

edit:

Found the video, which shows a short view of the small pail. At that size, I am sure I could fit it under my sink, but then I have the out of sight, out of mind problem.

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