Black/blue/green bins

[speedog]

Seeing as Calgary is intending to have it's green box program in place by mid-2000, I am curious as to where other municipalities are with respect to black/blue/green bin recycling programs. Do other cities have mechanized trucks picking up their bins, trucks where there's only a driver who picks up the bins using mechanized robotic arms? Also once a home has a green bin in Calgary, then their black bin pickup will be reduced to a biweekly schedule.

And just in case, black = garbage/refuse, blue = recyclables, green = organics/compostables.

Also, I believe in some places, there are random spot checks done with respect to weights of full garbage bins, what is in a blue or black bin, etc and fines can be levied - Kelowna and Medicine Hat are two that come to mind.

[mistercorporate]

The black/blue/green bin program works just fine here in Toronto.

[vid]

My city still lets people put three garbage bags on the curb and a truck with two men operating it drives by every week to collect them. Recycling is done using blue bags and is picked up every two weeks and the only public composting option we have is a facility at the landfill itself which is about a 10 minute drive from the city.

And when I say bags I literally mean "just throw the bags on the ground at the end of your driveway".

We're reducing the bag limit to two later this year but people are totally freaked out about it, it's probably the biggest controversy in the city's history.

[Acajack]

We have two bins here in Gatineau:

- blue is for recycling

- brown is for compost

And regular garbage cans for the rest.

The pickup for the blue and brown is mechanized with arms but there are still guys who line the bins up.

Our garbage is only picked up every two weeks. Recycling is every two weeks in the alternate weeks.

Compost is weekly.

[cjones2451]

I am in Port Moody BC and we have full bins for Recycling (all but glass, plastic bags styrofoam and metal) on alternating weeks with garbage and Green Waste weekly.
All trucks are 1 driver with automated arms. They take the plastic and styrofoam, light bulbs, batteries, paint etc. at the depots with bottle returns now so my garbage even every 2 weeks (with kids) is 1/2 to 3/4 full even every 2 weeks. Glass is picked up once a month too

Great system

[Rollerstud98]

We're just getting blue carts as we speak in Airdrie. Have had green carts for a few years. We do have a nice recycle depot that I use a fair bit but now I guess my blue bins will be going for a ride in the blue cart soon! Declutter my garage a little bit more lol.

[SteelTown]

We have one garbage bag limit per week here in Hamilton. Green and blue bins are picked up once a week as well, you can have as many bins you want, you can pick up a free blue/green bins at certain rec centres.

During this time of the year the city will mail out extra garbage tags, think there's 20. So if you have more than one garbage bag and than slap on a tag and the garbage collectors will take it.

Garbage collectors are both private and public operated. All suburbs and Hamilton Mountain have private garbage collectors while the lower end of Hamilton has public garbage collectors.

You can ask the city to inspect your garbage and blue bins and if they approve you'll get the gold bin.


http://www.ecolog.com

[OutOfTowner]

Depends on the borough in MTL. In Villeray, garbage and recycling is bagged, brown bins for compost. All weekly pickups, buildings with 9 or more units have twice weekly garbage pickup and bins for recycling and garbage.

[1overcosc]

Kingston has a limit of one garbage bag per week for free. You have to buy tags for anything more than that.

We also have green bin and blue bin programs. Here, we have dual-stream recycling; metal & plastic go into the blue bin, and paper & cardboard go into the grey bin. Weekly pickup alternates between blue bin and grey bin.

We have one of the highest waste diversion rates in Ontario, likely a result of the city's demographic profile.

[Brizzy82]

in Winnipeg, each home is given a tall blue bin for recycling, grey bin for other household garbage. In the summer months, leaves and grass clippings are picked up every 2nd week.



the bins are usually picked up by the trucks w/ the robotic arm, but not always.. I'm not sure what the deal is with that. Sometimes its done with workers hopping off & dumping the contents by hand.

[drew]

Originally Posted by Brizzy82

the bins are usually picked up by the trucks w/ the robotic arm, but not always.. I'm not sure what the deal is with that. Sometimes its done with workers hopping off & dumping the contents by hand.

From what I have observed in our back lane - blue bins are dumped by hand, and the garbage bins use the arm on the truck.

[Rollerstud98]

Originally Posted by Brizzy82

in Winnipeg, each home is given a tall blue bin for recycling, grey bin for other household garbage. In the summer months, leaves and grass clippings are picked up every 2nd week.



the bins are usually picked up by the trucks w/ the robotic arm, but not always.. I'm not sure what the deal is with that. Sometimes its done with workers hopping off & dumping the contents by hand.

We have organics recycling(green cart) that is picked up every 2 weeks during the winter and every week during the summer. In this we can put almost everything. Cardboard, newspaper, fast food containers other than the plastic bits, grass/tree clippings. Pretty handy and cuts down a ton of refuse for sure.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Regina has a brown bin for garbage (picked up every week)
Blue for recycle (picked up every two weeks)

I live alone and only have one small bag of garbage per week, I can go 4 weeks before the blue bin needs emptying.

Both bins are picked up by the arm trucks.

Bottle and can returned is handled by SARCAN which is Saskatchewan wide service.

[speedog]

Originally Posted by Rollerstud98

We have organics recycling(green cart) that is picked up every 2 weeks during the winter and every week during the summer. In this we can put almost everything. Cardboard, newspaper, fast food containers other than the plastic bits, grass/tree clippings. Pretty handy and cuts down a ton of refuse for sure.

Where is 'we'?

[Rollerstud98]

Airdrie is we! Should have seen the fight people put up when getting the green carts!

[WhipperSnapper]

Toronto

black/blue/green bins

black and blue alternating weeks
green every week

small black bin holds about one bag. can upgrade to a larger size for a annual fee. any size recycling is free.

the bins are hard to maneuver in dense urban areas.

[manny_santos]

London still does not have a green bin program, despite the city being home to the facility that processes Toronto's organic curbside waste.

Are there any Canadian municipalities larger than London that do not have a green bin program?

From what I've heard, there has been a significant amount of opposition to such a program there, with cost being a major issue, as well as a viewpoint that people should compost in their backyards instead (despite that being impossible for apartment dwellers).

London was also one of the last urban municipalities in Canada to introduce a blue box program, in 1989. To this day I believe their waste diversion rate is among the lowest in Ontario.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

London still does not have a green bin program, despite the city being home to the facility that processes Toronto's organic curbside waste.

Are there any Canadian municipalities larger than London that do not have a green bin program?

Right here. But I find we're often behind the curve when it comes to things like this.

[BretttheRiderFan]

I live in downtown Edmonton and we simply have dumpsters in the alley behind the building.

All of our waste gets sorted, and by last year the city estimated we were diverting over 90% of the city's waste from landfills, through our world-class composting facility and our recycling programs.

It's one of the points of pride in this city that very few people seem to be aware of.

A couple years ago we became the first city in the world to start turning our trash into biofuels.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1374751/ed...-into-biofuel/

[eemy]

Waterloo has had blue/green bins for a while, but has recently changed to collecting garbage (4 bags/bins) and yard waste every two weeks, and collecting the blue and green bins weekly. This is true in both urban and rural areas. Tags for excess garbage can be bought for $2 each.