Calgary recycles

[bigcanuck]

Originally Posted by Full Mountain

Are you refering to the green bins? AFAIK they won't roll out to the rest of the city for a couple of years yet, 2014 or 2015 IRC

We're fortunate to live in one of the pilot communities - we've had the bins for just over a month now. The green bins are great. The only downside for us is that the black bins are now only collected every 2 weeks - far too long when you have an infant in diapers...

[DizzyEdge]

whereas I only have to put mine out once a month. I wish there was a way to sort of pay according to how much garbage you produce, but I'm not sure if that's realistic since the trucks would have to drive down each alley anyway to see if anything needs picking up.

[5seconds]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

whereas I only have to put mine out once a month. I wish there was a way to sort of pay according to how much garbage you produce, but I'm not sure if that's realistic since the trucks would have to drive down each alley anyway to see if anything needs picking up.

There was talk a one point (maybe in talking about what other municiplaities do) of having different sized bins for different prices. So the regular is the bin that we already have, and a larger bin could be obtained for a larger monthly cost, and a smaller bin for a reduced cost. (assuming that you could no longer throw away black bags in addition to the bins capacity)

Not sure if different sizes of bin would be compatible with the trucks, but it's an interesting concept.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by 5seconds

There was talk a one point (maybe in talking about what other municiplaities do) of having different sized bins for different prices. So the regular is the bin that we already have, and a larger bin could be obtained for a larger monthly cost, and a smaller bin for a reduced cost. (assuming that you could no longer throw away black bags in addition to the bins capacity)

Not sure if different sizes of bin would be compatible with the trucks, but it's an interesting concept.

Just curious if the cost to the city of labour and trucks is greater than any difference in volume of garbage collected.

[Surrealplaces]

It never used to bother me either, but lately, I get three or four different people going through my recycle bin just before the pickup day. A few times lately they've left stuff out in the alley....I'm not impressed.

Originally Posted by Chinook Arch

Normally I wouldn't care. I used to have bottle pickers go through the alley all the time and it never bothered me at all, more power to them i used to say, but guys with new vehicles doing this are just greedy money grubbers.

I'd like to see a fine imposed, as the bottles really belong to the city once you put them in the bin.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

whereas I only have to put mine out once a month. I wish there was a way to sort of pay according to how much garbage you produce, but I'm not sure if that's realistic since the trucks would have to drive down each alley anyway to see if anything needs picking up.

A pay per pound/bag/bin approach has a tendency to increase the amount of garbage shenanigans. Basically some people would toss garbage at the city park/green-space or commercial dumpster just to avoid paying any cost.

Additionally as has been mentioned here recently, an infant can easily double the amount of garbage produced by the formerly childless family. A tag-a-bin scheme would be cast as a tax on new families.

[DizzyEdge]

sounds like it's likely not feasible for multiple reasons.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

However, if they would just get rid of the deposit, so that we could throw the bottles in the recycling bins, that would be the best.

Tell me about it. I've ranted about this at length, but I'm amazed that the entire point of the deposit (encourage recycling) has been defeated with the blue bins, yet we keep charging/reimbursing it. City vs Province, yada yada etc, I don't really care, it's a huge pointless waste of bureaucracy and is leading to annoying problems with homeowners who are trying to do the right thing by recycling everything. I really hope this gets fixed in the next few years. I long ago stopped giving a shit about the $10/month I'd save by stockpiling garbage in my garage for months at a stretch (and then spent an hour on the trek to the smelly bottle depot). The rest of the city should be free to do the same.

Saw green bins in action in Toronto, where they actually have significant amounts of organic waste. In Calgary, it's almost laughable. I think my trees grow about .2 kg per year at this point. I might fill a green bin every decade or so in our climate. Maybe people waste a lot more food than I do. Their black bins were positively tiny by comparison - I'd be highly in favour of bi-weekly pickup at this point, considering our waste output. Sometimes we go a whole month without putting out the bin(s).

[Elbownian]

I suspect the number of households in the province without recycling pickup still exceeds the number with. Heck, a good 30% of households in Calgary still don't have city-provided service. Until that figure flips, the deposits probably aren't going anywhere. Once we have the service levels where they need to be to support it though, absolutely makes sense to ditch deposits.

[Big Sky]

Isn't the deposit refund used to help fund the recycling program?

Originally Posted by freeweed

Tell me about it. I've ranted about this at length, but I'm amazed that the entire point of the deposit (encourage recycling) has been defeated with the blue bins, yet we keep charging/reimbursing it. City vs Province, yada yada etc, I don't really care, it's a huge pointless waste of bureaucracy and is leading to annoying problems with homeowners who are trying to do the right thing by recycling everything. I really hope this gets fixed in the next few years. I long ago stopped giving a shit about the $10/month I'd save by stockpiling garbage in my garage for months at a stretch (and then spent an hour on the trek to the smelly bottle depot). The rest of the city should be free to do the same.

Saw green bins in action in Toronto, where they actually have significant amounts of organic waste. In Calgary, it's almost laughable. I think my trees grow about .2 kg per year at this point. I might fill a green bin every decade or so in our climate. Maybe people waste a lot more food than I do. Their black bins were positively tiny by comparison - I'd be highly in favour of bi-weekly pickup at this point, considering our waste output. Sometimes we go a whole month without putting out the bin(s).

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by Big Sky

Isn't the deposit refund used to help fund the recycling program?

I'm sure it is, but my main reason for not placing those bottles in the bins is the contents of my bins would be all over the place due to people going through them.

[5seconds]

When I was in Germany, I was amazed that all of the supermarkets that I went to (admitedly few) took back bottles, so you didn't have to save your bottles for a trip to the bottle bank. You just brought them back with you when you went shopping. I would love to see something similar.

[You Need A Thneed]

I love the Mexico model for deposit. The small corner stores make you promise to bring the bottle back, and if you do make the promise, the bottle of Coke is 25 cents. If you want to keep the bottle, the store would charge 75 cents.

[fusili]

Originally Posted by 5seconds

When I was in Germany, I was amazed that all of the supermarkets that I went to (admitedly few) took back bottles, so you didn't have to save your bottles for a trip to the bottle bank. You just brought them back with you when you went shopping. I would love to see something similar.

I've experienced the same thing in Peru and Chile.

[You Need A Thneed]

Even more curious is some places in some countries, where the corner store won't let you even take the bottle out of the store. You purchase the bottle of pop, and they will pour the contents into a ziplock bag for you and give you a straw.