Residents in Abbeydale, Brentwood, Cougar Ridge and Southwood, who receive blue and black cart service, are participating in a pilot where they can put their food and yard waste into a green cart for collection. The City picks up green bins every week and the contents are turned into high-quality compost rather than going to the landfill.
While Calgary is recycling more than ever, food and yard waste still makes up nearly 60 per cent of residential garbage going to landfills and is our biggest opportunity, as individuals, to reduce landfill use, cut harmful greenhouse gases and create valuable compost.
Learn more:
What can I put in my green cart?
All food (cooked and raw) can go into the green cart along with yard waste. Learn more at what goes in your green cart.
For more green bin tips, including where to find compostable bags, visit:
When are my carts collected?
Check out the 2012-2013 collection calendar for your pilot community.
Where will the food and yard waste go?
All food and yard waste collected from the pilot communities is taken to a private composting facility near Strathmore. If Council approves a city-wide program, it would take until late 2016 to design, build and obtain the permits for a composting facility large enough to serve the entire city. Nothing currently exists at that scale locally.
Find out what happens during the composting process.
Why are we doing a pilot?
The Green Cart pilot program will test weekly food and yard waste collection, and gauge customer experience and acceptance of black cart collection every second week.
Following the pilot, Waste & Recycling Services will report back to Council in March 2013 with its recommendations. With Council approval, a city-wide program could be implemented between 2015 and 2017. Learn why it's important to keep food and yard waste out of our landfills on our Why Green Cart page.
Do you have a question for the green cart team?
To send questions to our green cart team by email, or share your thoughts, visit our green cart feedback page.
We are collecting the most frequently asked questions we hear from Calgarians and are providing answers to them on our frequently asked questions page.
