OLDS — Town of Olds residents have a new garbage, recycling, and organic waste collection schedule effective Monday with pickup starting Tuesday.
Effective Jan. 1, Empringham Disposal is providing the service, picking up waste from residential curbs.
Monday's collection will be performed on Tuesday, Jan. 2.
The Red Deer-based company has signed a three-year contract with the Town of Olds. That contract includes an option for the municipality to renew it for two, one-year extensions.
The days of collection remain the same; they’ll just occur more frequently, according to town officials.
Changes to the collection service include that garbage (black bins) will now be picked up every two weeks and recycling (blue bins) will alternate every two weeks throughout the year.
During the week of Jan. 8-12 a mid-winter green bin compost pickup will be offered to support composting over the winter months. Otherwise, compost (green bins) will be picked up every week from April to October, but not during November to March.
“We heard from many residents through the recent budget survey that we needed to increase the bin collection schedule,” Town of Olds Mayor Judy Dahl says in a written release from the town.
“Council and I understand the importance of this essential service and we are pleased that a new schedule will be implemented to reflect the needs of Olds citizens.”
An online version of the waste collection schedule is available at www.olds.ca/WasteCollection.
The new schedule for 2024 provides more frequent black bin (waste) and blue bin (recycling) pickups, according to the town, with a higher cost than previous: $25 now compared to $24.30 in 2023.
Between 2018 and 2022, the municipality had an average of 1,246 tonnes of garbage per year an during that same period around 358 tonnes of recyclable materials and 543 tonnes of organics were collected annually
The town currently has 3,480 residential homes requiring curbside solid waste pickup services.
