TRIMMING GREEN BIN COLLECTION
City proposes reduced winter service
Calgarians are putting out less than half the amount of food and yard waste during the winter months than they do in the fall, prompting the city to float the idea of everyother-week green cart collection.
The city hopes to save more than $2 million annually by reducing collection of the 240-litre bins to alternating weeks between November and April, according to a proposal coming to a city committee next week.
Savings could be passed on to customers, with a reduced green cart charge starting in 2019. Currently, households pay $6.50 per month for collection.
“It’s based on a great, common sense idea that I’ve heard from so many Calgarians, and it makes sense to me,” said Coun. Jeromy Farkas. “Calgarians do such little yard work and generate a lot less compostable waste in the off season.
“By going this route, we’re going to be able to realize millions of dollars in cost savings in labour and fuel.”
Calgary introduced the green cart program quadrant-by-quadrant, starting in the southwest last July; southeast neighbourhoods were the last to receive green cart service in early October.
Data collected since then shows Calgary’s food and yard waste dropped from a peak of 12,000 tonnes in October, to 5,000 tonnes in December.
Coun. Sean Chu was the first on council to criticize the frequency of green cart collection last fall. He said he’s made a point of randomly checking green bin use in the neighbourhoods he visits.
“I’ve been checking — every place I go, I always look into people’s green bins to see what it looks like (and) to be honest with you, it’s nothing, maybe one small bag, or two, a week, in a huge bin,” Chu said, adding it might be possible to reduce collection frequency even further.
“It’s very encouraging that administration has (proposed) this. We’ll get some savings for sure, so I’m very happy.”
While some Calgarians have complained about the addition of a third waste bin, the city says the green cart program has been very successful.
Calgarians put out more than 37 million kilograms of food and yard waste in 2017 bound for the city ’s Shepard composting facility, an amount 47 per cent higher than what was predicted.
There could be a few hiccups with the plan to reduce the green cart’s collection schedule. Calgary ’s volatile weather could throw a wrench in the city ’s plans; an early spring or a late start to winter “could lead to collection issues for excess materials and the potential for increased odours,” the city said in a report.
With a scaled-back collection schedule, there’s also increased risk of people throwing waste into the wrong bin.
When the city moved to everyother-week collection for black carts, there was increased contamination in the blue carts, from seven per cent to 10 per cent.
Most municipalities in Alberta already follow an every-otherweek schedule for green carts in the winter, including Airdrie and Cochrane.