Sunday, October 17, 2021

Garbage, recycling etc.

 For us garbage day is on a Thursday; unless there has been a holiday and then it's a day later in the week.

One week we have garbage, recycling and green bin pick up.  The next week we have yard waste (though see what I write about that further down the post), recycling and green/organic bin pick up.

This week it was the yard waste, recycling and green bin pick up.


In the blue bin we can place:

Acceptable items for blue containers box:

  • Empty aerosol cans.
    Remove the lid and dispensing nozzle (if possible) from the empty can before placing in your Blue Box. Aerosol cans that are not empty must be taken to the Household Hazardous Waste Depot.
  • Empty, dry paint cans.
    Remove the lid to allow the remaining paint to dry & place both can and lid in your Blue Box. Can sizes are limited to 4 litres & under. Paint cans that are not empty must be taken to the 
    Household Hazardous Waste Depot.
  • Plastic retail and grocery bags.
    Bags must be clean & empty. Remove any receipts or materials from the bags, put all bags inside one plastic retail or grocery bag or a clear plastic bag, and tie shut before placing in your Blue Box. Please do not use dark garbage bags as the collectors cannot identify if the bag contains recycling or garbage.

    Tip:Do the stretch test! If the plastic stretches when you pull on it, it's acceptable in the Blue Box (exemption: plastic – clingy / film / Saran – wrap is not accepted).
  • Aluminum trays, pie plates and clean aluminum foil
  • Tetra Pak boxes Juice and milk cartons
  • Plastic food and beverage containers, bottles, jugs, tubs, styrene trays and lids
  • Glass food and beverage bottles and jars
    No need to remove labels
  • Food and beverage cans
    Push lids down inside, no need to remove labels
  • Spiral cardboard cans
    The plastic strip around frozen juice cans is not acceptable but please include the metal portions
  • Bulk packing styrofoam providing it fits into a standard size blue box
    No styrofoam peanuts
In the grey bin we can place:

Acceptable items for grey (paper) box:

  • Telephone books and magazines
  • All household paper including newspapers, photocopy paper, hardcover books (without the cover) envelopes, gift wrap, cards and paper bags (without foil or plastic coating)
  • Boxboard and egg cartons
    Remove all plastic wrap and food liner bags, flatten box, place inside another box
  • Cardboard
    Flattened and bundled no larger than 75cmx75cmx20cm. Place in or beside recycling box, limit of five bundles per week for each business establishment, no limit for residents
In the green/organic bin we can place:

Acceptable items in the green bin:

  • All food scraps and leftovers
  • Meat, bones, rice and dairy products
  • Vegetables and fruits
  • Pastas, breads
  • Cooking oils and grease
  • Coffee grounds and filters, tea bags
  • Microwave popcorn bags
  • Dryer lint, dust
  • Hair, pet hair
  • House plants
  • Soiled newspaper, paper towels*
  • Paper plates, napkins, tissues*
  • Paper egg cartons
  • Fast food drink trays
  • Paper cups
  • Popsicle sticks, toothpicks
  • Wood wine corks
  • Wood ashes (cold)
  • Dried flowers
  • Pumpkins, garden fruit & vegetable waste
  • Eggs and eggshells
  • Muffin paper cups
We are allowed 2 garbage bags/bins every two weeks.  We are lucky if we fill one bag/bin.

The yard waste has to be put into yard waste bags.  As you can see mine are from Home Depot.  Now just to confuse everyone depending on the month we have a variety of times when yard waste is collected:

Weekly CollectionJanuary, April, May, June, September, October, & November
Every Other Week Collection​July, August, & December
No Collection​February & March
I will say when I go walking, especially on garbage day a lot of folk do not understand the rules of recycling?  You have to have your garbage out on garbage day by 7am.  We seem to be first on the route for our subdivision, so I tend to put out the night before.  Mind you there is no rhyme nor reason about what time they are going to turn up.

All the info came from our local city website.

Do you have garbage pick up?  Do you recycle where you live?

9 comments:

Joy said...

It all sounds very complicated although I expect you get used to it after a while and it's good that there is recycling at all.
It sounds very similar here. One week is general waste, cans and glass and the cardboard sack and the next week it's garden waste, plastics and the paper sack while each week they collect food waste.
I keep the rota on my fridge door so I can check what week it is!
xx

kate steeper said...

the problem we have is that in the UK every town has different rules so it just gets more and more confusing , we have four large bins in different colours they collect once a month for the recycling ones and the general bin once a fortnight . Plastic glass and foil go in one, this is problem child and you look with interest for the big contaminated label which means they havent taken it , Theyve changed it yet again this week no tetra packs , wrong colours of plastic is a pain because if it has a recycling number on it still cant go sometimes so most get caught by that one . cardboard is easy enough . I dont pay the extra for garden waste collection . The garden is huge and i could fill it every day easily i just have huge compost bins. Any large items you have to book apickup at £30 per item . Everything else you have to book a slot at the waste center which is hardly ever open . Oh and the bins must be out for 7am and theirs a fine for them being out the night before if you live in town

Unknown said...

This sounds a lot like ours except our garbage goes every week (and we have to put an expensive tag on it) and they don't collect yard waste very often. We have the same bins as yours. We always have much more recycling than garbage.

My Piece of Earth said...

We have garbage, recyclable cans/glass etc. every week, however, not the same day each week. This week for instance pick up is on Fri, October 22, the next pickup will be on November 1st. If there is a holiday, then it will be one day later than the regular schedule. It all needs to be out before 7:00 a.m., we do it at night, and make sure all the lids are on tight and cans/jars are washed, so no animals are attracted to tear everything apart. Once a month garden waste, in paper bags or in bundles (twigs, branches etc) tied and no longer than 2 feet pieces. There is no specific day during that week, so everything is at the end of people's driveways for several days. We have no compost pick up, I have two in my garden where I put kitchen waste, no bones or meat.
People who do not have composters on their property put all of the kitchen waste etc in their regular garbage pick up. The city has discussed compost containers for years, we are still waiting.

Caree Risover said...

I always find it strange when different areas have different capacities for recycling. I recall staying in Sweden once and we were directed to 9 containers for all the different types of recycling. Here in our part of North Yorkshire we have one large wheelie bin for general waste to be processed at the Recovery Plant (anaerobic digestion of the organic part produces biogas; the remainder is incinerated to produce steam to feed an electricity geneating turbine)and another for recyclables except for glass that has to be put out in a separate box. The different bins are collected fortnightly in alternate weeks. Like Kate, we compost our garden waste so don't pay for the privilege of yet a third wheelie bin. Some items, like paint cans, rubble and household chemicals we have to take in person to the tip/recycling centre but fortunately don't need an appointment although in the adjoining district you do, meaning people drive to ours instead and inevitably at peak times there's a long queue.

William Kendall said...

It's similar here.

Jackie said...

We do have garbage and recycling pick up. Garbage is every week, and recycling every second week.

We don't get to recycle as much as you, just paper, cardboard, cans, glass, and plastic milk jugs. I would love if they took more.

God bless.

Karen said...

I live at the back end of nowhere, but we still have municipal garbage and recycle pickup. Our municipality recently took plastic bags off the recycle list, so into the garbage they go. We have a compost pit way on the far side of our yard. The critters like it too. Chipmunks and Grey Jays are frequent guests. We used to have a pair of foxes that would sit and wait for me to bring out the kitchen bucket after dinner. They were so cute.

Margie said...

Yes, we have garbage, green bin, and recycle pick-up every week. But our garbage is limited to 1 bag, unless you have one of those special tags...

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