The city is rolling out a green cart pilot project in several Calgary communities in an effort to reduce organic waste in landfills.
Residents in Abbeydale, Brentwood, Cougar Ridge and Southwood will test out the new bins starting the week of March 5, 2012.
The city hopes the new carts will reduce residential garbage by more than half.
The carts are intended for organic waste which will be turned into compost for farms, parks and gardens.
"Food and yard materials make up the two largest sources of our household waste - nearly 60 per cent," said Program Development Leader Paula Magdich. "Like recycling, composting is the right thing to do. We can cut our garbage by more than half by simply using the green cart".
The city says the green carts will accept a wider range of food and yard waste than backyard composters.
Residents can dispose of many items that cannot be composted at home, such as meat, bones, breads, dairy products, fish, cooked foods and paper plates.
Residents in the pilot communities will receive a green cart, a kitchen pail to collect food scraps in the home, compostable bags to line the kitchen pails and paper yard waste bags.
The organic material will be sent to a commercial composting facility near Strathmore.
The city is also testing black cart pickup in the pilot neighbourhoods and garbage collection will now be once every two weeks.
The City says they will continue to collect blue carts every week.
The pilot project will help the city to formulate recommendations for a city-wide program when Waste & Recycling Services reports back to Council in March 2013.
For more information about the green cart food and yard waste pilot, visit the City of Calgary website or call 311.
