The City of Airdrie held an open house on April 11 at Ralph McCall School to inform citizens about the curbside organics pilot program that will take place over the summer.
The pilot program will run from May 1 until Sept. 30 in portions of Waterstone and The Canals. It is designed to encourage citizens to sort their organic wastes from their regular garbage, which will then divert food scraps and yard waste from landfills and sewage systems and reduce the amount of waste being dumped.
Currently, 52 per cent of Alberta’s waste is organic material. The aim of the pilot and the program is to make Airdrie more environmentally friendly, save money, and help shape the future of organics recycling.
“The City will provide (those who participate) with everything they need for this pilot program,” said Paul Lyons, the education coordinator with the City of Airdrie.
Citizens who choose to participate will be given a kitchen pail and liners for it, a green cart similar to black garbage carts used in Calgary and user guide, which will outline in further detail how the program works and what can and can’t be placed in the green carts.
The kitchen pails can be used for things like food scraps or paper plates and napkins. The liners provided with the kitchen pails are completely compostable, and allow for easy transfer into the green cart when the pail becomes full.
The green carts can hold 240 liters of organic waste and will be picked up by a fully-automated truck every week on the same day and in the same location as regular garbage pick-up for the area.
Over the course of the summer, the City will be asking those trying out the program to provide feedback, which will be used to help shape a potential citywide organics recycling program in Airdrie.
There will be a cost for the City to run the program, but staff hopes the money saved by reducing the amount of garbage the city has to transport to the dump will offset the cost.
“It currently costs us $100 per ton to dump garbage in the City of Calgary. It will cost us $50 per ton to dump our organics, so we will definitely be able to see that tradeoff in the long run,” said Lyons.
Overall, response to the program at the presentation seemed positive, with some residents expressing minor concerns.
“Our family will definitely participate in the program. Our concern is with the smell and the look. Like if they could make the cart a little thinner so it will fit in your garage. But we worry that it will be very smelly, too,” said George Burke-Dobie, who attended the information session with his family.
“We want to bring (our kids) up in a recycle and reuse sort of environment, so hopefully they’ll learn from this,” said Ann Marie Burke-Dobie.More information concerning the pilot program can be found at www.airdrie.ca
