Congratulations to all of the Sort’nGo homes on the West Coast – you’ve made it through the first season of three-stream roadside collection, and are doing a great job at diverting waste from our landfill by sending kitchen waste to the compost facility.
It’s been a long, wet winter, but with the longer, brighter days of spring come opportunities to further expand your green cart use! Check out some top tips.
Garden waste = Compost treasure
As you start to get those garden beds ready for the season, remember to top up your green cart with garden waste. This can include weeds, grass clippings, leaves and small branches. So as you trim, clear and dig away remember that all of these materials add to our compost product and are welcome. While many of you might have ways of composting these at home – this is a great way to get rid of extra debris.
PRO TIP: Grass clippings make a great, natural green cart liner – making it easy for a cart to empty using a very compostable material.
Pruning and Branches
As trees and bushes get cleaned up for the spring/summer growing season, those branches can also be sent to the compost facility. Just remember that they need to fit in the cart, with the lid closed – this allows our truck to properly pick up and empty the carts.
PRO TIP: By layering wet and dry materials in your green cart, you can reduce sticking to the sides and bottom of the carts too.
Remember:
• No invasive weeds – Noxious weeds should be bagged and put into the garbage cart as they have seeds that will not break down during the composting process. A reference for residents can be found at www.bcinvasives.ca
• Self haul is available – The compost facility is available for self-hauling as well at a minimum $5 drop-off. Whether you receive organics collection at home roadside or not – extra materials can be taken directly to the new composting facility located at the West Coast landfill.
• Flowers welcome – Flowers from your garden or a bouquet that you’re finished with (ahem – it’s Mother’s Day soon!) can be sent into the green cart as well.
Remember: By composting at the roadside, we’re reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a few ways – both reducing the output from our landfill caused when organics material breakdown in an uncontrolled way, but also by reducing emissions caused by individuals transporting waste individually.
Recycling Our Black Gold
Composting literally transforms what would have been thrown in the trash into an incredibly valuable resource. Once we start transforming our food and yard waste into compost, we can recycle it back into our local green spaces and parks – doing better for the environment, our community, and ourselves.
Visit www.letsconnectacrd.ca/sortngo-west-coast for more or download the free Sort’nGo ACRD app and start learning how to live simpler, and sort smarter.