Black/blue/green bins

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

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.

K-W may be the birthplace of the blue bin, but the uptake on green bins has been weak. We'll see if the change to bi-weekly garbage collection doesn't improve green bin usage.

[Hali87]

In Halifax we have green bins for compost (first such program in Canada, I think), blue bags for recyclables (which people must buy themselves) and bags for other garbage, 1 of which per collection can be black, but the rest must be clear. Larger buildings generally have dumpsters for garbage/recyclables + green bins. AFAIK all types of plastic are recycled here except for styrofoam. Recyclables are collected weekly in my area and compost/garbage alternate weeks.

[Horus]

Originally Posted by 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.

Having lived in other cities with different programs, I have to say I really like Gatineau's recycling program. 1 giant bin, everything recyclable goes in it - no sorting. Plus the bin has a big sturdy lid so that recyclable papers don't end up all over the neighbourhood on windy days.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Horus

Having lived in other cities with different programs, I have to say I really like Gatineau's recycling program. 1 giant bin, everything recyclable goes in it - no sorting. Plus the bin has a big sturdy lid so that recyclable papers don't end up all over the neighbourhood on windy days.

Gatineau, like all cities in Quebec I am pretty sure, has a mandated target of 60% "diversion" or whatever you call it. Basically 60% of waste has to go to recycling or composting.

[hipster duck]

I wonder how much waste is actually diverted in our big cities where 1/3-1/2 of people live in multifamily apartments and condos that might have private garbage pickup.

In many of those buildings, my impression is that waste diversion practices are horrible. If your option is to throw a bag down the garbage chute on your floor, or physically transport yourself 30 floors down to the basement to separate your recyclables, it's pretty likely that the most of the recyclables are going to wind up in the landfill.

[SpongeG]

in our building in coquitlam, we have 2 garbage bins, 1 bin for cardboard, 1 small bin for all recyclables and 1 small smelly bin for food scraps.

when the recycling bin gets filled up, which is only a couple days, it all goes in the garbage bin.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I wonder how much waste is actually diverted in our big cities where 1/3-1/2 of people live in multifamily apartments and condos that might have private garbage pickup.

In many of those buildings, my impression is that waste diversion practices are horrible. If your option is to throw a bag down the garbage chute on your floor, or physically transport yourself 30 floors down to the basement to separate your recyclables, it's pretty likely that the most of the recyclables are going to wind up in the landfill.

i've dropped off garbage at the garbage place in coquitlam a few times and there is a team of workers, usually special needs people, whose job is to sort out the trash, they literally open the garbage bags and sort out the recycling, they break the trash down.

Also I also when it gets too much will drive the recycling things to the municipal recycling centre, they have large bins for newspaper, paper, cardboard, plastic and metal.

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I wonder how much waste is actually diverted in our big cities where 1/3-1/2 of people live in multifamily apartments and condos that might have private garbage pickup.

In many of those buildings, my impression is that waste diversion practices are horrible. If your option is to throw a bag down the garbage chute on your floor, or physically transport yourself 30 floors down to the basement to separate your recyclables, it's pretty likely that the most of the recyclables are going to wind up in the landfill.

Very few buildings in Vancouver have garbage chutes, new buildings aren't allowed to have them by code.

Toronto they're everywhere. Some try to have sorting chutes (ie press a button on your floor and the tube sends it to the right box) but ive never seen one actually functioning.

[Denscity]

Once a week we have 2 trucks. The first one picks up garbage in a tall grey bin with mechanical arms.
20 minutes later the second truck pulls up and the guy riding shotgun gets out and dumps your small blue cardboard bin and the plastics empties etc small blue bin into the appropriate compartment in the truck.
Our "dump" has separate containers for every possible recyclable item. Regional government run.
Our Return-it Depot takes empties electronics etc.
Province run?

[manny_santos]

I love when old threads get resurrected

Almost three years later, London still does not have a green bin program, though there is now one coming. My parents were among those who were opposed to it (they saw no need, they've never composted in their life so why spend taxpayers money on something different), when I explained to them that almost every other municipality in Canada has such a program already and that London is the outlier in this situation they were shocked. They were even more shocked when I told them Kingston has had such a program for over 10 years and that it's just second nature to everyone in these other communities to sort organics into a separate stream.

It is amazing how living in the same city for decades and doing almost no travelling in recent years can really insulate people from how things are done elsewhere.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I love when old threads get resurrected

Almost three years later, London still does not have a green bin program, though there is now one coming. My parents were among those who were opposed to it (they saw no need, they've never composted in their life so why spend taxpayers money on something different), when I explained to them that almost every other municipality in Canada has such a program already and that London is the outlier in this situation they were shocked. They were even more shocked when I told them Kingston has had such a program for over 10 years and that it's just second nature to everyone in these other communities to sort organics into a separate stream.

It is amazing how living in the same city for decades and doing almost no travelling in recent years can really insulate people from how things are done elsewhere.

We had green bins in St Thomas when I moved there in 1993. When I came back to London in 1996, it was weird to only have garbage and blue box. And then the 6 zone collection thing started to really gum up the works. Meaning, the city is in 6 zones that get collection one zone per day. So that means Monday this week, Tuesday next week and so on. Then you get a Friday, skip the entire following week and start again at Monday of the next week after that. And then a holiday comes up and pushes you another day back lol.

[Loco101]

In Timmins, ON we have good sized grey bins for garbage and a slightly larger blue ones for recycling. Both are bins with wheels and our city often refers to them as carts. You can put as much stuff as you want to in each bin but it can't be overflowing. None of the recycling has to be sorted which is nice. Collection is once a week for both garbage and recycling.

Our recycled stuff is trucked to a sorting facility in Sudbury. The company that operates that sorting facility bitches about once a year to our city council and the media because many people in Timmins simply just throw garbage into the blue bin.

Our city council has recently been discussing having compost/organic collection. It's not a popular idea in Timmins but would be very popular with our many bears.


Here is what our bins look like along with one of the trucks that lifts and empties them.

[Harrison]

Edmonton is JUST rolling out our green bins this month, along with standardized garbage bins. For reasons I don't know, recycling will still be collected in blue plastic bags only, not bins. About time, but I am not sure why it's taken the city so long to implement standardized waste collection.

https://www.edmonton.ca/programs_ser...t-rollout.aspx

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Harrison

Edmonton is JUST rolling out our green bins this month, along with standardized garbage bins. For reasons I don't know, recycling will still be collected in blue plastic bags only, not bins. About time, but I am not sure why it's taken the city so long to implement standardized waste collection.

https://www.edmonton.ca/programs_ser...t-rollout.aspx

We got told a few years ago we weren't allowed to bag our recyclables anymore. I preferred doing that instead of the bins because it was easier to carry everything out at once, I didn't end up with crap blowing around out of the bin, and I didn't have to chase the bins down later in the day when I got home. If the bins are even still there. They said the recycling contractor told the city that they were seeing increased costs in having to open the bags at the depot, which to me seems like it would be offset by how much quicker the drivers could pick up by snatching a couple bags and tossing them in the truck instead of dumping a couple bins and setting thegrabm back down.

I can't see us going to a standardized garbage bin though. That would be a huge expense to retrofit or replace the current trucks where the guy hanging on the back grabs the bags and tosses them in and goes. Plus I see those trucks like above that dump the bins being slower, needing more of them and more staff. The annoying thing we do have is a 3 container limit. Not a problem with 3 containers itself, it's that you can't put 4 bags to the curb, but I can stuff 4 bags into 2 garbage cans and put those out to the curb and it's legal. The garbage truck usually comes about 15 minutes after I leave for work and now my cans will sit out there for the next 9 hours or so. It's rare I put out more than 3 bags anyway, but it's annoying that I can put 3 cans (as long as the cans don't weigh more than 40 or 50 pounds each) but I can't put out 4 bags even if they are only 10-15 pounds each.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

We had green bins in St Thomas when I moved there in 1993. When I came back to London in 1996, it was weird to only have garbage and blue box. And then the 6 zone collection thing started to really gum up the works. Meaning, the city is in 6 zones that get collection one zone per day. So that means Monday this week, Tuesday next week and so on. Then you get a Friday, skip the entire following week and start again at Monday of the next week after that. And then a holiday comes up and pushes you another day back lol.

I remember when that 6 zone collection setup was implemented, and yet I've been surprised at the number of Londoners who think it's a good system and that it's super easy to follow. The Free Press comments used to get flooded with comments about how good a system it was whenever there was an article about it. You're in fact only the third Londoner I've ever seen complain about it - my parents are the other two. (I also think it's a dumb system, FWIW)

I've only lived in apartments in recent years so there's no "garbage day" for me, but once a week on the same day is much simpler to remember.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by 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.

Update for Gatineau.

Everything is the same except for the past year or two we've had a city-issued grey "ultimate" garbage bin that's in between the (small) compost bin and the (large) recycling bin in size.

It's picked up every two weeks as per what I outlined above.

You need to fit all your garbage into that grey bin or else they won't pick it up. (Well, you can get more picked up but you need to pay extra. Some kind of tags or stickers you buy and place on the extra bags. Otherwise they just leave them there.)

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I remember when that 6 zone collection setup was implemented, and yet I've been surprised at the number of Londoners who think it's a good system and that it's super easy to follow. The Free Press comments used to get flooded with comments about how good a system it was whenever there was an article about it. You're in fact only the third Londoner I've ever seen complain about it - my parents are the other two. (I also think it's a dumb system, FWIW)

I've only lived in apartments in recent years so there's no "garbage day" for me, but once a week on the same day is much simpler to remember.

Prior to the 6 day schedule, we had the same day and it moved back a day whenever we had a holiday, then it stayed on that new day until the next holiday. I don't have a huge problem with the system as it is now, but I think it's a substandard service for the taxes we pay. I guess it's offset by not being required to shovel the sidewalks lol. Fortunately, I have a couple neighbours who put their garbage out fairly early the evening prior to jog my memory if needed lol.

I don't know how St Thomas does it now, but back then they had it the same day of the week regardless of holidays. It was a private contractor, the same guy that owned the dump (that he eventually sold to the city of Toronto and became one of the richest people in southern Ontario lol), and his contract with the city was the same day each week. I think Christmas was the only day they took off and they would just work longer the following day to catch up.

[Loco101]

The garbage and recycling in Timmins is done by the city and with trucks that pick up both our grey and blue bins.

Some years the pickup will take place on all holidays except Christmas. But over the past year they have moved the pickup day to after the holiday for some holidays.

We can still go to the dump and get rid of lots of stuff up to a certain weight per address before paying but I think our city implemented a tipping fee starting soon. In the past, whenever our city made it more difficult to dispose garbage, people would just go and dump it in the bush. People here are upset about fees because it harms our environment.

[SignalHillHiker]

Here it depends where you live.

The suburbs all do their own thing...

The City of St. John’s proper does garbage pick-up every week, recycling pick-up every second week, and from May to November yard waste pick-up on the same day as recycling.

In most areas of the city, the garbage collection is automated using black bins, and recycling in blue bags is collected manually by council workers.

In the core, those bins are too big for the rowhouses and there's nowhere to put them, so people may put out up to 4 black garbage bags each week, covered by a net or blanket to keep the seagulls and rats from making the streets a mess. They're collected manually. Recycling operates as elsewhere.

[Wigs]

In Niagara we switched to bi-weekly garbage collection.
2 bags/containers per household (garbage bin not to exceed 91cm/36" in height, 61cm/24" diameter, or 50lbs weight).
If you exceed the limit you have to buy garbage tags @$2.50/each that you affix to the extra bags

Weekly recycling: grey bin, blue bin, green bin
Leaf/yard waste gets collected periodically in those large paper bags

We've had green bins for, I wanna say, around 15 years now. It's strange that other parts of Canada haven't adopted this yet

Since we've switched to bi-weekly garbage pickup, recycling rates have increased and garbage has been reduced.

Recycling and green bin use is up in Niagara Region following the switch to bi-weekly garbage collection.

In the six months since implementing the change, green bin tonnage is up more than 34 per cent and garbage tonnage is down almost 16 per cent compared to the same time last year.

https://www.chch.com/bi-weekly-garba...iagara-region/