The City of Calgary will be updating their progress on the green cart pilot program, the new waste collection service aimed at all food and yard waste.
The pilot project has been running for the past three months and approximately 8,000 homes have been putting out their food waste, grass clippings, and other items that decompose out at the curb for weekly pickup.
The participants were selected in Abbeydale, Brentwood, Cougar Ridge, and Southwood.
"Food and yard materials make up the two largest sources of our household waste - nearly 60 per cent," said Program Development Leader Paula Magdich in March. "Like recycling, composting is the right thing to do. We can cut our garbage by more than half by simply using the green cart."
The city says the green carts will accept a wider range of food and yard waste than backyard composters.
Residents can dispose of many items that cannot be composted at home, such as meat, bones, breads, dairy products, fish, cooked foods and paper plates.
Residents in the pilot communities 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.
The city says that materials collected in the bins can be turned into valuable compost at a commercial composting facility in Strathmore that can be used in farms, parks, and gardens.
The pilot project will help the city to 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 the City of Calgary website or call 311.
