Green bins en route, changes coming to curbside trash pickup in London, Ont.

Londoners looking to get rid of large items in the trash come garbage day will have to plan a bit more in advance.

Starting Sunday, items such as furniture and mattresses will need to go through the city’s new booking system and residents will need to request a pickup at least five days in advance.

The curbside trash changes come as London looks to adopt smaller garbage trucks, according to Jay Stanford, the city’s director of climate change, environment and waste management.

“We’ve had to start making some adjustments to the collection system as we get ready for the green bin program,” he said. “It’s going to be a new system and like anything, there’s going to be a bit of a grace period and it’ll take probably a good three months for this really to filter into all of London.”

While it does vary throughout the year, Stanford said “probably one out of every 25 homes will have a very large item at the curb come garbage day.”

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With regard to the implementation of the new booking system, he added that “during the phase-in period, we will still have many regular collection vehicles out.”

“It’s not going to be mandatory right now and that’s really what I want to emphasize,” he said. “There’s no need to panic, it’s a system that’s going to roll in.

“But when the green bin program starts in January 2024, that is when citywide, we’ve got our new collection vehicles, referred to as split packers,” Stanford added. “The back of the truck has two openings, one for the green bin material, the other for regular garbage.”

The green bin program, marking the most significant change to waste collection in over 25 years in London, was approved earlier this year.

The introduction of green bins has been an over decade-long process in London, as a pilot project ran for a year in 2011.

The first stage of the highly anticipated program is also set to get underway within the next few weeks as green bins are being delivered to about 120,000 households across the city.

“It’s going to take two months to deliver across the entire city,” Stanford told Global News. “You may have a friend in a certain part of the city that gets the green bin in late October, for example, (but) you might not get yours until the first week of December. That’s just kind of the nature of the delivery system.”

The green bins will also come with a kitchen container, a pickup calendar, and a guide on how to take part in the program with the new collection dates starting Jan. 15.

“I think many Londoners are saying not only is this long overdue, but they’re also excited that it’s just around the corner,” Stanford added.

More information on the green bin program as well as requests for pickup through the new garbage booking system can be found at Service London.

– with files from Global News’ Marshall Healey.