Calgary Green Compost Bin Program

[sleepingmoose]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Family of four (me, Mrs., cat, dog) and most of the time we don't even put the green bin out, we just don't need to.

Once the leaves got dry enough for me to use the blower-vac on them, I was actually able to fill the damn thing to 80% capacity. That's more action than it has seen since we moved into our house in May.

With a cat and dog, surely you have pet waste you could put in regularly, on top of your kitchen waste?

We really reduced the amount we put down the Garburator when the green bins came around - until I went on a tour of the compost facility and they said all the bio solids from wastewater treatment goes to compost as well. Now I don’t feel guilty about it.

[bob-loblaw]

This year I took down all my hedges, bushes and grasses to the ground. With all the leaves that were around plus cutting my lawn short there was a ton on dead stuff. We've had problems with voles but didn't have any last year when I got trimmed down a bunch of potentiallas and cut the lawn really short.

I decided to run the lawn mower over the branches and everything else. Over the two weeks basically it mulched into two full green bins and two paper bags. Kinda fun doing that but I'm sure the neighbours didnt appreciate all the noise. Meh.

[DownhillGoat]

Any good solutions for liquids in the compost bin? I used to store liquid/grease from cooking in an empty tin can, then toss it.

If it can go into compost, that works too, but are there any decent/cheap compostable containers that would be good for liquids? I don't really want to dump it straight into the bin.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by DownhillGoat

Any good solutions for liquids in the compost bin? I used to store liquid/grease from cooking in an empty tin can, then toss it.

If it can go into compost, that works too, but are there any decent/cheap compostable containers that would be good for liquids? I don't really want to dump it straight into the bin.

I've heard that the commonly actionable practice is to throw it at the driver as he goes by.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Locke

I've heard that the commonly actionable practice is to throw it at the driver as he goes by.

Unfortunately I usually work Thursday afternoons.

[sleepingmoose]

Originally Posted by DownhillGoat

Any good solutions for liquids in the compost bin? I used to store liquid/grease from cooking in an empty tin can, then toss it.

If it can go into compost, that works too, but are there any decent/cheap compostable containers that would be good for liquids? I don't really want to dump it straight into the bin.

It’s probably wasteful, but I soak the grease up with paper towel and put it all in the compost. At least then it’s not sloshing around in the bin.

[shogged]

Originally Posted by DownhillGoat

Any good solutions for liquids in the compost bin? I used to store liquid/grease from cooking in an empty tin can, then toss it.

If it can go into compost, that works too, but are there any decent/cheap compostable containers that would be good for liquids? I don't really want to dump it straight into the bin.

Not sure about containers but a 5 dollar bag of cat litter from superstore lasts a long time for me, I just toss some in there to cover the bottom and it takes all the oil with it when it gets dumped

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by shogged

Not sure about containers but a 5 dollar bag of cat litter from superstore lasts a long time for me, I just toss some in there to cover the bottom and it takes all the oil with it when it gets dumped

Fantastic idea. Thanks.

Beats the hell out of freezing it and bagging it to be disposed of on pickup day.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

With a cat and dog, surely you have pet waste you could put in regularly, on top of your kitchen waste?

We really reduced the amount we put down the Garburator when the green bins came around - until I went on a tour of the compost facility and they said all the bio solids from wastewater treatment goes to compost as well. Now I don’t feel guilty about it.

Ding ding ding, we have a garburator too.

As for the cat and dog leavings in the bin, sure, but it's still bugger all.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

With a cat and dog, surely you have pet waste you could put in regularly, on top of your kitchen waste?

We really reduced the amount we put down the Garburator when the green bins came around - until I went on a tour of the compost facility and they said all the bio solids from wastewater treatment goes to compost as well. Now I don’t feel guilty about it.

Take a tour the waste water treatment side. The amount of bio solids is a significant component of the design capacity of the system. So using a garbarator increases the Capital and Op cost of water treatment.

It would be interesting to see if pipelining and treating the waste is more efficient than collecting in trucks so perhaps the optimal solution is for yard waste to go down a garberator rather than trucked.

[Ducay]

Anyone here have insider insight into the recycling and compost programs? What I'm looking to understand is which bin (blue vs green) is best for certain items that can go in either bin (ie clean plain cardboard, unsoiled pizza boxes, TP rolls, etc)?

Pound for pound which spot would the city benefit most from? Right now I only put those items in the green bin when my blue bin is full, but wonder if the city is better off with me putting more into the green bin.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Anyone here have insider insight into the recycling and compost programs? What I'm looking to understand is which bin (blue vs green) is best for certain items that can go in either bin (ie clean plain cardboard, unsoiled pizza boxes, TP rolls, etc)?

Pound for pound which spot would the city benefit most from? Right now I only put those items in the green bin when my blue bin is full, but wonder if the city is better off with me putting more into the green bin.

https://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Docum...art_YES_NO.pdf

Cardboard shouldn't go in the green bin AFAIK.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by Weitz

https://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Docum...art_YES_NO.pdf

Cardboard shouldn't go in the green bin AFAIK.

https://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Pages...Listing.aspx#C

Dirty pizza boxes are compost.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Weitz

https://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Docum...art_YES_NO.pdf

Cardboard shouldn't go in the green bin AFAIK.

Cardboard can. As mentioned above, pizza boxes that are soiled should get composted, as do the cardboard bags used for leaves, etc.

They just don't highlight that cardboard can be put in the green bin because then you'd have dumb people putting cardboard with tape, stickers, glossy printing, etc, in it because "hurrrrr they told me to compost it!". They are clear that dirty pizza boxes should get composed because they cause issues in recycling and they'd rather deal with a bit of plastic/stickers from those boxes in the compost than deal with 1000s of un-recyclable pizza boxes in the blue bins.

I'm asking about plain jane, no tape, no plastic/color printing, etc on it cardboard and other similar items.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

https://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Pages...Listing.aspx#C

Dirty pizza boxes are compost.

Cool I didn't see that site, only the no and yes thing that isn't super clear.

Thanks!

[Swarly]

I have no insider knowledge or anything but my general rule is that recycling is better than just throwing it out (or composting it). So I put whatever can go in the blue bin first, then green, and whatever is left is garbage.

[GGG]

In general if something can go in the green bin put it in the green bin. Composting actually makes sense.

If it is not pristine and perfectly clean uncontaminted recyclable material and can’t be composted put it in the garbage.

Contamination of recycling is a huge issue in the multistream recycling system and there is almost zero market for anything but aluminum and very clean paper products.

In general Compost first, Garbage second, and only the best product into recycling.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by GGG

In general if something can go in the green bin put it in the green bin. Composting actually makes sense.

If it is not pristine and perfectly clean uncontaminted recyclable material and can’t be composted put it in the garbage.

Contamination of recycling is a huge issue in the multistream recycling system and there is almost zero market for anything but aluminum and very clean paper products.

In general Compost first, Garbage second, and only the best product into recycling.

I generally agree with you, and the general understanding that recycling isn't really all that effective is what lead to my post, but like Aluminum, I *believe* cardboard is one of the other products that makes sense financially and economically to recycle. Corrugated producers rely heavily on post-consumer products in their supply chain, so hence, was hoping to get an inside view on which (green vs blue) is best for the city here locally.

Huge tangent, but you hit the nail on the head - anything glass and most other plastics are not even worth recycling and when you consider the impacts of contamination and resale market - it makes the black bin a better choice for a huge chunk of recyclables here locally. Believe Aluminium and Cardboard being two of the exceptions to that.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Ducay

I generally agree with you, and the general understanding that recycling isn't really all that effective is what lead to my post, but like Aluminum, I *believe* cardboard is one of the other products that makes sense financially and economically to recycle. Corrugated producers rely heavily on post-consumer products in their supply chain, so hence, was hoping to get an inside view on which (green vs blue) is best for the city here locally.

Huge tangent, but you hit the nail on the head - anything glass and most other plastics are not even worth recycling and when you consider the impacts of contamination and resale market - it makes the black bin a better choice for a huge chunk of recyclables here locally. Believe Aluminium and Cardboard being two of the exceptions to that.

Yeah totally agree.

Aluminum and really all metals recycle really well.

The cardboard as long as it’s not contaminated with food (apparently packing tape and staples are okay). So for food based packaging card board I think compost is a good default. Amazon boxes and stuff I recycle

[Fuzz]

I was wrapping some food last night, and got thinking, what is the better choice? Using saran wrap once, or using aluminum foil a few times until it is torn or whatever, then recycling?