Organic waste collection in Red Deer starts on Monday, and already public complaints about green carts are rolling in to city hall.
‘I’ll never fill such a large cart,’ some people are saying.
Others are questioning why a municipal organic composing program is being “forced” upon them, when they could just as well compost in their backyards.
Yet other householders consider it a waste of taxpayer money.
Janet Whitesell’s Environmental Services department has heard it all before.
Roll the clock back to 1991 when Red Deer first started picking up recyclables in the blue box program, there were similar rumblings — arguably even louder than those heard today.
Whitewell, the city’s waste management superintendent, learned from old news articles that some city residents were so upset they were dropping off their blue boxes on the steps of city hall in protest.
The Advocate quoted one Red Deerian who compared the extra expense of recycling on his utility bills to being forced to pay the GST.
“People complained about the cost, and said they were doing fine without it,” summarized Whitesell. But if the city cancel the pickup of paper and plastics now, she predicted there would be widespread condemnation.
“People love their blue boxes,” she said. The city is even planning to replace them with larger blue carts next spring.
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Just as it took years for Red Deer’s recycling program to get widespread buy-in, the green cart program will also take time to catch on — that’s understandable, said Whitesell. “Change is hard,” and the city can’t force anyone to use green carts, but she believes many people will be surprised by how much organic waste they accumulate.
A late spring means lawn debris can’t be added to the carts for a couple of weeks, but Whitesell said pizza boxes or any paper packaging too stained by food to go into the blue box can go in. Other items are: used paper towels and tissues, pet waste, and any kind of food wastes — including fruit and vegetable peels, old bread crusts, bones, and fat trimmed from meat.
A pilot project showed up to 40 per cent of household wastes can be diverted from the landfill, so Whitesell is confident the green cart program will be worth it.
The main hurdle — at least until the snow melts — is wheeling green carts out into back lanes on each neighbourhood’s garbage collection day.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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