The green carts rolled out to Langdon in mid-September, but it had some residents seeing red.
When it comes to sorting household waste, there are now three categories to ponder: Recycling, general waste and now organics.
As with any new program, there is some resistance, and naturally there are many question about what goes into the green bin and what doesn’t, and when the pickup would start.
There are some who are extremely excited to start composting with help of someone who will pick up the waste, but others are asking, do we really need this? The answer is yes.
“There are always some people that don’t like change,” said Rocky View County councillor Rolly Ashdown. “One of the realities of dealing with waste is that it’s not like it used to be.
“Years and years ago, you used to dig a hole, light it on fire and bury it. You just can’t do that anymore. When municipalities are dealing with waste they are dealing with three things.
“They are dealing with recycling, dealing with organics and whatever is left as waste. Dealing with whatever is left, there is a multitude of methods. People have to get used to recycling, organics and waste a these three things you have to sort.”
The basics are quite simple. Food and yard waste will go in the green bin, as long as they are collected in compostable bags. Food-soiled paper towels, napkins and tissues as well as paper plates and coffee filters, grounds and tea bags also qualify.
Items from the yard — leaves, cones, grass clippings, branches and twigs, weeds and soil — go in as well, but sod should go in the black garbage bins. When you think about it, the large bins might not be enough for what can be generated during certain times of the year with Langdon’s large yards.
There are questions surrounding pet waste but — unlike in the City of Calgary — it should go in the black bin as the county’s processing facility can’t handle pet or human waste.
This should greatly reduce the amount of general waste a household will produce.
“It’s just as important as recycling,” Ashdown said. “The people that don’t like the idea that they have to pay to do it, there is no other way to make it so it’s economically feasible unless everybody subscribes to it.
“The more recycling the better because you have less and less waste. The reality is there is always going to be something. When you have a small-town attitude, where you have a bag of garbage and someone comes and picks it up, you just can’t keep doing that. You now have to separate it into the three things that leave your house.”
