City Notebook: Modern trash

By COLLIN GALLANT on November 4, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Council will consider a food waste collection program after it hears an update to divert for material from the city’s landfill on Monday.

That’s after another reminder that Halloween pumpkins can be composted in green bins (rather than being left to the deer, or pranksters, I suppose).

Shrewd green bin owners have for years snuck coffee grounds and potato peels into the bins advertised to collect lawn clippings, leaves and small branches.

To this point though, administrators have remained officially mum on the fact that an old lettuce head from the fridge is the same as a wilted one from the garden box. There has been a fear of starting a free for all, and right now the compost facility is ill-equipped to handle meat, bones or pet waste. All of which are compostable, but without an education campaign to accompany the new service, really, admit it, who knows what would get tossed in?

Details are due this week on a food waste pilot project, but one has to wonder if this will run along the same formula as previous disagreements about trash pickup.

Recall bringing in blue bins (the Hat was the last major city in Canada to offer the service), or the green bins, for that matter, when paper bags for leaves were just coming into vogue.

That followed a foray into approved trash can storage that gave way to the robotic arms of modern-day rubbish collection.

All caused a lot of upset and concern initially but, here we are, the city’s still standing.

Speaking of pumpkins

Is there anything China doesn’t lead the world in?

Well, ATB informs us via its daily newsletter “The Owl” that the world’s now largest economy is also the world’s largest producer of gourds.

Alberta pumpkin production rose to a record 4,000 tonnes in 2022, worth about $2 million at the farm gate. But that’s only about 5 per cent of Canadian production (Ontario supplies two-thirds of the 87,000-tonne, $37-million market.)

China grows a variety of gourds, about 7.4 million tonnes per year, one out of every four in the world’s production.

Quick ones

Rats! – Chatter about the Hat’s rat battle at the dump a decade ago is being revived as two recycling plants in Calgary battle new pockets of the pests supposedly kept out of the province. (Ag producers are doing border inspections now).

Rodeo! – The Canadian Finals Rodeo is underway this weekend in Red Deer, but it will return to Edmonton in 2024, five years after disagreement saw it move to the central Alberta city. Brooks barrel racer Lynette Broadway will wear No. 1 as a contestant number after winning the most money on the summer tour this year.

Other entries from the region are bull rider Jared Parsonage (Maple Creek), bareback rider Wyatt Maines (Elkwater) and steer riders Davis Young (Empress) and Brodi Beasley (Patricia).

Plenary! – The UCP annual general meeting was held over the weekend with all eyes on the makeup of the party’s board of directors.

A look ahead

City council sits Monday to make a final decision on the Medicine Hat Stampede’s request for a $15-million municipal grant and further interest free-loan toward grandstand redevelopment and expansion. That’s on top of a heavy agenda.

100 years ago

Albertans voted heavily for government control of liquor sales, it was announced by megaphone from the window of the News offices on Nov. 5, 1923.

The long-awaited plebiscite had drawn such interest and campaigning that the News invited Hatters to the Empress Theatre to watch results rather than wait for the next afternoon edition. A system devised by The Canadian Press and Alberta Government Telephones informed slides projected on the screen, while an overflow crowd near Finlay Bridge heard updates of real time polling results as well.

British stock growers laid the accusation that outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in the country were deliberately caused by persons unknown.

Chilly weather kept down the crowd but not the times at the the final horse races of the year at he exhibition grounds staged by the Medicine Hat Sporting Club.

A Bowmanton-area farmer was fined $25 in court after he seized 412 bushels from a neighbour to cover a lingering, unpaid debt.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com.