The City of Airdrie is now offering curbside organic recycling to citizens and on Monday the first green carts were rolled out in some neighbourhoods.

Mayor Peter Brown, members of city council and Waste & Recycling staff were on hand for the delivery of the first ceremonial cart.

“Thrilled it’s finally here, we’ve been working on this for a long time,” said Mayor Brown.

Bob Blakeborough was part of the pilot project and says he likes the idea.

“We’ve reduced our garbage by more than half. We used to put out between two and three bags a week and now we’re down to between half and one bag a week of garbage on top of recycling,” said Blakeborough.

City officials say the carts could divert up to 50 percent of the city’s waste from the landfill.

About 14,000 bins will be distributed in the community and crews will add collection of the carts to regular routes starting in April.

Pickup during the summer months will be every week and every second week during the winter months.

For more information on curbside organics recycling in Airdrie, click HERE.