Green cart rollout begins for city neighbourhoods
The City of Lethbridge is rolling out its curb-side organics green carts in three neighbourhoods as the first phase of the project begins. About 1,900 homes started getting their carts Wednesday. The first three neighbourhoods to receive the carts will be areas of Varsity Village on the westside as well as Legacy Ridge and Hardieville in north Lethbridge, James Nicholls, operations manager of Waste & Recycling Utility, said Wednesday.
Residents who are part of Phase 1 won’t be charged for green bin collection until the program goes city-wide in the spring of 2023.
Every home that is part of the initial phase will be getting a 240-litre green cart and eight-litre kitchen catcher pail with a user guide and brochure about the program.
“We’re trying to figure out the best way for us to do collection, try and iron out some bugs that we would expect with a new program prior to cart rollout in 2023,” said Nicholls.
Various factors came into play in deciding the three areas selected for the program including age of families, types and size of roads as well as tonnage.
During the first phase, the City will learn if it needs to adjust the size of routes and how many staff will be needed.
Currently, more than half of the material residents put into their waste carts could be diverted to the organics program, Nicholls said. Acceptable materials will include such things as meat, bones and yard waste.
Collection will be done on a different day than garbage and recycling pickup. Residents can call 311 or download the Lethbridge Loop app to find out collection days in their areas. The first pick up will be on May 12 and will continue until November when collection will change to bi-weekly.
Material will be stored at the Waste and Recycling Centre and processed by an off-site contractor while a new composting facility is being built.
More information is available by calling 311 or online at curbside.lethbridge. ca