The Green Bin and The Blue Box
Guest Post by Nancy
The waste management is about to change inHalton…which Oakville is a district of the Region of Halton…!! In a few weeks time all residences will be delivered a green bin - one to keep outside and one to have on your kitchen counter…well I will probably keep it under the counter. This green bin is to help you separate out your garbage…you are going to put all sorts of compostable items in the green bin. The weekly waste collection will change once the green bin program commences. First they will only be picking up those 6 bags of garbage every 2 weeks…they will be picking up the green bin and the blue boxes every week. Already I find with the blue box program that I am totally overloaded by the time the second week roles around…as currently the blue box (recycling program) only gets picked up every other week…so now with the blue box and the green bin pick-up going weekly and the regular trash pick-up bi-weekly - hopefully we will begin to see a reduction in the amount that actually goes in the regular trash and subsequently into the landfill site will last us longer…!!!
I have to admit that we have only in the last year or so really gotten into recycling…I think it was because of the kids learning so much about it in school…anyway we literally put out less and less in the garbage every week…I can only imagine how much more we can reduce those bags when we are dividing out the compostable items.
I was at a friends cottage last summer and they don’t yet have a recycling program up there…and every time I threw a plastic bottle or a tin can into the trash…I got pangs of guilt…as I know there are solutions now for those products to be recycled and every little bit we can do to save the planet is a good thing…!!! Just my recycled two cents…!!!
April 5th, 2008 at 2:50 am
This new recycling program has commenced starting today. The problem so far I’m having is knowing which item goes where. Of course, Halton Waste management sent all residents a guide, but they didn’t catagorize all household waste itmes, so you’re left wondering which bin is the correct one.
April 7th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Sadly I am unable to use the green bin program because I am in a townhouse complex. Two years they say until this might be available to us. This is a bone of contention for most of the residents in my complex.
As for the green bin - here is the best way to put it…
Everything goes in if it biodegradable… if you have cooked with it - it goes in… what doesn’t go in is foil, pet anything (other than fur) and diapers, another bone of contention of mine, the last two are compostable items in the city of Toronto, and York Region.
I am saddened by how completely un-green, and unconcerned the City of Oakville is.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Well - we have had the green bin going the entire weekend…and of all the funny things…the kids don’t get it…LOL I though for sure they would pick it up right away, and they simply keep forgetting and scrape their leftovers from their plates directly into the garbage…I thought since they were pushing so hard for recycling that they would get the hang of this right away…!!! LOL
I have to say…just as with the blue boxes…which if done properly, fills up really quickly…the green bin is proving to be the same…full all the time.
Now I am not 100% sure we are doing this right and will check on the town’s website, unless someone else can help me out…but we use the brown biodegradable bags in the small counter top container…we also use the large brown biodegradable bags for the outside container…and we put all of the small bags into the large bag in the large container when the small one gets filled up…am I making sense…???
So…
The problem is that we have filled the large container practically in one weekend and we still have the whole week to go…do I take out the large bag and start another large bag…??? When the environmental engineers (garbage men) come by - do they only pick-up what is in the green bin, or will they know that the other brown biodegradable beside it has to also go…??? Maybe I should go and get another bin…but where do you buy them…???
I guess the kicker for me is the fact that we have been doing well already with recycling…and now with the amount we have been putting in the green bin…I feel excited that we are really not throwing as much into the landfill as we use to…!!!
Michelle…stick to your guns…I can not possible imagine how the town can refuse to pick it up the same way for everyone…??? It simply doesn’t make sense…!!! I think the town hasn’t addressed the busineses either…we have an office in Burlington…and they do not pick-up recycling their either…and let me tell you…we could reduce alot of the junk we are throwing out…it really is a shame…but I guess they have to take things one step at a time…but now that I have started this, I can totally understand why you are miffed to be able to do your part…!!!
April 24th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Can you put dog poop in the green bin?
April 29th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Hi Dog Owner Brother
The answer to your question is apparently not…they don’t want that kind of waste…now if you lived in any other region then Halton, I believe that is something that you can put in the compostable recyclying, but as I had posted on…
http://www.oakvilleblogger.net/compostable-bags-for-the-green-cart-and-kitchen-catcher/
each region does it a little differently and has different capabilities of recycling based on which system they had purchsed to process this stuff…
A lot of this does not make sense so I just assume that it all comes down to a money issue.
If I find out anything further regarding how our system compares to that of the other regions I will reply to this site again…!!!
For now…NO DOGGIE DODO…!!!
May 16th, 2008 at 7:29 am
Well, Nancy, I am so glad you could help out with the doggy poop issue, because we too are having the same questions out here in BC. Love your site!
May 25th, 2008 at 2:32 am
Blue Box Materials can go in one container!!!
Halton residents can put all their recyclables in one blue box instead of seperating papers and containers into two boxes.
Glass, plastic bottles 1 (PET) and 2 (HDPE), plastic tubs and lids, metal cans, aluminum foil, juice boxes, milk cartons, paper, envelopes, newspaper, phone books, box board and corrugated card board can all go in the same Blue Box, making it even easier to recycle.
Apparently, advances in technology and changes in the marketplace have allowed the Region to change the way collecting and processing recycling materials, therefore pre-sorting is NO LONGER NECESSARY…!!!
I can’t tell you how happy I am about this personally…I am thrilled that I will never receive another note on my Blue Box telling me I have mixed something up…heck just be glad I put it in the darn blue box in the first place…!!! This is going to really help get people recycling even more then ever as it doesn’t require a degree in sorting to recylce now…!!!
Just another tidbit…I found recently…!!!
June 15th, 2008 at 12:35 am
I bought organic salad greens in a compostable clear plastic-looking container recently and wondered if it is acceptable in the green bin in Oakville, Ontario. It is marked on the package that it is compostable and made of a corn material.
Thanks for any answers!
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:13 pm
I know the manual says that you can recycle plastics #1 and #2. Do you all throw the rest of the plastics in your regular garbage, or in with the rest of the items in the blue box? A lot of the fruit and apple sauce containers are neither #1 nor #2 and we end up throwing a lot into the regular garbage.
Thanks.