This week's snow created a problem for the city's Blue Cart recycling program.
Hundreds of homes didn't get their weekly pickup service because side roads were too treacherous for trucks.
"It's always very, very slippery or icy," says Bill Carr, a resident in Edgemont. "Most of us who live on the crescent knew there was going to be huge, huge problems with the Blue Cart program and after one snowfall I'd say we're right."
Officials with Waste and Recycling insist it was the freak weather that caused the problems but the service will be able to weather upcoming winter storms.
"We piloted automated garbage in six communities last winter, or 6,000 homes, and didn't seem to have any problems making it through and, as you remember, it was a heavy snowfall year," says Darcy Cairns the superintendent of automated service, waste and recycling.
One alderman says this week's disruption to service is another reason Calgary needs to invest in better snow removal on its roads.
"It would help with recycling, with transit service, with getting people to work on time. It would help in so many different aspects that I can't even begin to touch on how much benefit it would have to the city," says Andre Chabot, the alderman for Ward 8.
The city says recycling trucks have been returning to homes they couldn't reach on Wednesday but officials admit the majority of homeowners will have to wait until next week for pickup.
