The Town of Olds is gearing up to start the single-stream recycling project in the coming weeks, with the town receiving new bins at the end of the month.
Larry Wright, the town's director of operations, said letters asking for people's participation will also be going out by the end of this week asking for people in the 63 to 65 Avenue area as well as people in the Silverthorn and Lake Ridge areas to participate in the one-year pilot project. The town wants to get about 800 households involved.
Administration budgeted $127,000 for the project for the remainder of 2012.
In all likelihood, a schedule change in the day pickup will take place will occur, in addition to front yard pickup.
“Some of the folks, say, on a Wednesday schedule now will be asked to switch to a Monday. We're looking at areas where we can get front-load capability, combined with a green bin pickup too. We're trying to do a number of adjustments in the culture and the schedule, so we're doing that to make it work and keep the cost down to ourselves, the customers and the (Central Alberta) Waste Management Commission,” he said.
The new containers will have electronic recognition devices on them to automatically weigh the bins and to more easily track them if they are lost.
Wright said the town wants to find out how much waste can be diverted from the landfill into recycling and how costs of pickup and handling at the landfill will be reduced by the project.
“What we want to do is measure the contributions from the community and capture over a period of 12 months what we can divert from the landfill site … into the recycling … streams in Red Deer,” he said.
Following the conclusion of the project, Wright will report back to council on how the project went, giving it the opportunity to understand how effective it was. Wright said part of that process involves measuring its effectiveness in spring, summer, fall and winter.
“That's normal with a pilot program,” he said.
For those participating in the project, most items that formerly would have been recycled at the town's recycling depot, including items such as flattened cardboard, magazines, tin cans and paper will be put in the bins for pickup. Items that won't be accepted include food waste, film, plastic bags, plastic wrap or foam cups and containers.
