Green cart collection starts this week in the southwest

It’s time for southwest residents to set out their green carts as weekly Green Cart collection begins this week.

“Today marks another huge step forward for Calgary’s environment,” says Green Cart Implementation Leader Philippa Wagner. “With residents’ participation, this program will keep nearly half of our household garbage out of the landfill. That’s 85 million kilograms of food and yard waste that will be used to return valuable nutrients to the soil of gardens, parks and farms in the Calgary region.”

It’s estimated the Green Cart program alone will double Calgary’s residential waste diversion to 65 per cent, helping to reduce future landfill costs

“Green carts have been positively received by pilot residents,” says Wagner. “They find the program easy to use and are surprised to see how much material can be composted in the green cart and kept out of their black cart.”

The program goes beyond backyard composting since the green cart accepts many more things including meat, bones, plate scrapings, tree branches and pet waste.

Extra yard waste that doesn’t fit inside the green cart can be put in paper yard waste bags and set away from the green cart to be picked up on collection day.

Although compostable kitchen bags and pet waste bags are accepted, residents are reminded not to set out regular plastic bags filled with food or yard waste. Regular plastic will not break down during the composting process and will contaminate the compost.

Changes to collection days and frequency of black cart pickup

Also starting the week of July 17, southwest residents have new collection days for their green, blue and black carts and the frequency of their black cart collection is changing.

• Green and blue carts will be collected every week on the same day.
• Black carts will be collected on a different day than green and blue carts and will be collected once every two weeks since the majority of garbage can be recycled or composted.

Residents should refer to the collection calendar that was included with their green cart. Free reminders are also available through the Calgary Garbage Day app, or by text, email, phone call or downloadable calendars. These can be set up at calgary.ca/collection.

For more information about the Green Cart program, visit calgary.ca/greencart.

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