Green cart pilot project a success, says city

The City of Calgarysays its green cart pilot program is a success.

Residents in four communities Abbeydale, Brentwood, Cougar Ridge and Southwoodwere given green cartsa year ago to collect organic materials such as yard and food waste.

About 7,500 homes received a green cart, a kitchen pail for food scraps, compostable bags to line the kitchen pails and paper yard waste bags.

About 1.9 million kilograms of organics have been collected over the past year, said Dave Griffiths, director of waste and recycling services.

The idea of curbside composting seems to have been embraced by members of the test communities, he added.

"They gave us tremendous materials, very high-quality material. They were able to reduce their waste stream in their black cart by 40 per cent right at the start, those residents in those four communities," he said.

Black cart garbage collection has been scaled back to just every two weeks in those communities.

While the pilot project continues, city council will be asked later this month about taking the green cart program citywide in 2017.