Platoons of volunteers deployed between 2,300 and 2,500 blue recycling bins to homes throughout Olds in a three-day blitz that wrapped up on April 16.
Platoons of volunteers deployed between 2,300 and 2,500 blue recycling bins to homes throughout Olds in a three-day blitz that wrapped up on April 16.
As part of the town’s new community-wide recycling program, 75 volunteers took to the streets to hand-deliver each bin along with a magnetized poster indicating what items are accepted in the bin.
Krystal Worth, who has a family of five and lives on 50 Street, said she is thrilled the community finally has a blue bin recycling program.
"I love having it," she said. "It’s going to save me probably a trip a week to the (yellow) bins hauling my stuff."
While Worth added her family works hard to minimize waste in general and reuses items as much as they can, they also produce a good deal of recycling and having a home-based pickup service in town is "nice and convenient."
The new program follows a pilot project that began in the fall of 2012 involving 800 bins that were delivered to homes in the north and west parts of town.
The project was meant to determine if home-based recycling bins would divert waste from landfills and to see how residents responded to the service.
Studies organized by the town indicated the pilot project diverted 43.9 metric tonnes of material from the landfill in the first quarter of 2013.
Olds council decided last July to expand the blue bin program to the entire community and the first pickup of recycling bins is scheduled for April 28.
Collection of recycling, compost and garbage bins will now take place on a three-week rotation.
According to a blue bin fact sheet from the town, the three-week pickup rotation will save the town roughly $230,000 per year compared to the current two-week schedule.
"The three-week rotation also helps keep the monthly recycling charge to a minimum of $3.50 per account," the fact sheet states. "If the schedule was to revert back to a two-week rotation, charges would have to be increased to approximately $7.50 to $8.00 more per month, per account, as there will be additional staff, equipment, fuel and maintenance costs to complete collections in a safe, timely and efficient manner by Mountain View Regional Waste Commission."
The town has also indicated in the fact sheet that if the three-week rotation schedule does not work, Olds council could make amendments to the system for 2015.
Doug Wagstaff, the town’s community services director, said the cost of buying the bins was $200,000, slightly more than the $168,000 to $192,000 town staff had estimated last year.
He added the recycling bins, along with the community compost pickup service, will save the town money since a smaller amount of waste will need to be processed at the Olds Waste Transfer Station.
"It’s a change in the way we look at waste management."
The town’s fact sheet also states "recycling tipping fees are 50 per cent less than hauling black bin garbage to the landfill site."
Olds residents will start paying $3.50 a month beginning May 1 for waste collection services that include recycling pickup at their homes, a $1.50-per-month increase from the current fee.
Each bin delivered last week has a number assigned to it linking it to the home where it was delivered that town staff will plug into a database, Wagstaff said.
If the database shows a residence was missed, he added, the town will bring a bin to that home.
And if anyone did not receive a bin, they can call the town to have one delivered.
People who feel they need extra bins for recycling can purchase them from the town for $70 each.
The additional cost for having an extra bin picked up is $3.50 per month.
Wagstaff said the town’s recycling centres at the Westview Co-op and the compound near the intersection of 49 Avenue and 49 Street will remain open, especially since glass, which is not allowed in the blue bins, is accepted at the centres.
The town will evaluate in the future if having two recycling centres in the community is necessary, he added.
Another change regarding waste collection in Olds is the addition of more yard waste composting bins throughout the community this summer.
The waste commission will place 100 bins around town to accommodate extra compost such as grass clippings during the summer months, up from 70 bins in previous years.
Along with town staff and members of Olds council, 20 volunteers from ATCO Gas helped with blue bin distribution from April 14 to 16.
Once the delivery effort was finished, the volunteers were treated to a lunch from Olds’ Edo Japan restaurant at the former fire hall on 50 Street that was paid for by FortisAlberta.
Town staff who stayed behind to keep town hall running also received lunch.
Allison Beaudry, the utility’s stakeholder relations manager, said Fortis wanted to contribute to the effort because the environment is one of the utility’s "pillars of sponsorship."
Items that are allowed in the blue bins include newspaper, brown paper bags, tin or steel cans, phone books, magazines and catalogs, white paper, flattened cardboard and boxboard, paper chipboard, dairy and juice containers, plastic bottles and containers with the recycling numbers 1 and 2, aluminum cans and foil, pie plates and junk mail.
Items such as glass, Styrofoam, shredded paper and plastic bags will not be accepted for pickup.
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