Edmonton tests new waste management strategy
By Admin User on April 23, 2019
April 15 marks the start of the Edmonton Cart Rollout, a waste management system intended to reduce the amount of trash that ends up in landfills. 13 neighbourhoods were chosen to participate in the new cart-based system. “We really want to thank the 8000 participants taking part in the Edmonton Cart Rollout for taking this initiative to help us. They’re really helping us set the future for Edmonton,” said Vahid Rashidi, the senior project engineer for the initiative.
Homeowners receive a green cart for organics, a black cart for trash, a blue bag for recycling, a paper bag for seasonal yard waste and a kitchen pail for food scraps and other organics.
The 8000 participants will have their green carts collected once every two weeks in the winter and weekly in the summer. The black carts will be picked up once every two weeks.
The carts are picked up in the same way dumpsters are emptied, with a robotic arm that comes off the side of the garbage truck. This means that only what fits in the bins will be picked up.
“We want to work with the homes. We want to help, we want to work with the participants to understand their challenges so that we can improve on the system for a potential future roll out,” said Rashidi. “With the results we gather from this cart roll out and the feedback from the residents, we’ll be able to shape the future.”
City council will review the feedback from residents before deciding whether to implement the changes permanently.
In 2016 Alberta’s residential sector threw away 1,300,000 tonnes of trash.