With organic collection rolling into city neighbourhoods, changes are coming to garbage pickup.
Residents who receive automated curbside waste collection are reminded that, as of May 2 organics will be collected every week while garbage will only be collected every second week. And depending on where you live, your collection day might be changing.
For example, some residents in the Harwood/Seaton/Alexis Park areas pickup day will move from Tuesday to Monday.
The 120-litre organic carts are currently being delivered to properties and include a kitchen catcher and a curbside waste collection guide.
“We encourage you to read this guide carefully,” said mayor Victor Cumming. “The most important information in the guide is a colour-coded map of Vernon and a calendar that indicates your new waste collection schedule. This map and calendar will help you and your neighbours know when to place each of your carts at the curb.”
The waste collection guide also contains useful tips on how to store, use and maintain the new organics cart, as well as how to place the carts at the curb.
“It is really important that residents find their new waste collection day in the guide. It’s the only way to avoid the disappointment of finding out too late that you unknowingly placed the cart at the curb on the wrong day of the week,” said Cumming.
“Collecting organics from the residential sector and diverting them from the landfill adds to the list of achievements our community is making as part of our Climate Action Plan implementation,” Cumming said.
Mary Stockdale, co-chair of Vernon’s Climate Action Advisory Committee, said food scraps and organic yard waste that go to the landfill account for seven per cent of Vernon’s greenhouse gas emissions, the city’s third largest source of these emissions.
With the program’s launch, she said the city has done its part to reduce emissions that come from organics; now it’s residents’ turn to use the bins.
“Our community is going to be able to step up and do our part to reduce these emissions simply by choosing to use these new carts to compost household organics materials,” Stockdale said.
The city received provincial support for the program through CleanBC, which funded up to 66 per cent of the $1.4 million project, to the tune of about $937,000.
A larger 240-litre bin was also made available by request for residents who anticipated needing one. Just over 950 residents requested a larger bin out of 14,000 properties in the city.
An interactive and more detailed version of the colour-coded map can be found on the City’s website at vernon.ca/collectionschedule. Residents can use this online tool to input their address and find their designated collection day and schedule.
Residents who do not have access to a computer and need assistance finding their collection day can also call the operations team for assistance at 250-549-6757.
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