The City of Calgary is preparing to test out their proposed Green Cart program.
For the next two weeks, residents in four Calgary communities will be given the resources to begin testing out green cart composting as a part of a pilot program.
Then, starting the week of March 5th, residents in Abbeydale, Brentwood, Cougar Ridge and Southwood will be able to put their food and yard waste into a green cart for residential collection.
Similar to blue cart service, the City says green cart is designed to be easy and convenient for residents to use.
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Pilot residents will receive a green cart, a kitchen pail to collect food scraps in the home, compostable bags to line the kitchen pails and paper yard waste bags. Residents can collect all of their food waste in the kitchen pail. Once full, residents can remove the compostable bag with the food waste and toss it into their green cart.
The green cart accepts a broader range of food and yard waste compared to what can be put in backyard composters. In fact, all food can go in to the green cart including many items that cannot be composted at home, such as meat, bones, breads, dairy products, fish, cooked foods and paper plates.
With the addition of weekly green cart service, the pilot will test black cart garbage collection once every two weeks, as very little household waste should remain after recyclables and compostables are removed. The City will continue to collect blue carts every week.
The collected food and yard waste will go to a commercial composting facility near Strathmore that can break down the materials in a few months. The final product is a nutrient-rich soil amendment that helps plants grow, prevents erosion, retains water, suppresses plant disease and blocks weeds.
Residents’ participation and experience will help formulate recommendations for a city-wide program when Waste & Recycling Services reports back to Council in March 2013.
For more information about the green cart food and yard waste pilot, visit calgary.ca/greencart or call 311.
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