The city of Camrose has announced that it will now be rolling out the black and green collection carts, which have been a staple in many communities like St. Albert, Strathcona County, and Beaumont. The city will be providing eligible households with one 240L black waste collection cart and one 240L green compost collection cart. Delivery of carts will begin in the month of April but the use of the collection carts won’t begin until May 2nd.

Each collection cart has an embedded chip and serial number that is associated with the specific property address where it is delivered, which means if you move, your bins stay. Instead of trying to read the small serial number that is located on your collection cart, you are advised to write your address on the cart to help reduce confusion in case your cart and your neighbors cart get swapped. I know it may seem strange that some carts may get swapped but on those windy days when carts get blown over and blow down the street, you’ll be thankful when you see that your cart has your address on there. However, you are not permitted to write your name on the cart which makes a great deal of sense since you’ll be leaving it behind if you move.

Collection schedules will remain the same, so please remember to have the two carts out before 7:45 a.m. on your collection day. Collection starts at 7:45 a.m. and collection can take till 7:00 p.m. of the same day. The automated collection trucks require 1 meter (3.3 feet) on all sides of the cart for access to the cart. Some of the other communities that use dedicated waste and compost collection carts have set additional requirements where the cart lid has to be completely shut, as a waste limit.

It is great to see Camrose adopt this program, as many of the previous communities that have adopted programs similar to this, have significantly reduced their footprint on the environment. Of course it doesn’t stop there, there are many more ways that we can help reduce the amount of waste we produce besides our local municipality implementing this fantastic program, we as a community still have to consider what other ways we can reduce, re-use, and recycle.