Yard waste collection yields 600-tonne increase over 2019

By Medicine Hat News on December 4, 2020.

Another year of yard care is in the books, or rather in the bin, according to city solid waste department, which recorded a marked increase in tonnage from yard cart collection in 2020.

A jump of more than 600 tonnes from last year is attributed to an increasing number of yard carts, more major yard improvement projects during the coronavirus pandemic and residents being more conscientious.

“There’s a much higher number than usual and that’s likely from a higher number of people at home because of COVID and working on their yards,” said Jamie Garland. Green bin collection ended Nov. 20 with the grand total sitting at 4,250 tonnes for the season, which began earlier than usual in April.

That compares to 3,620 tonnes in 2019, representing an 18 per cent increase.

The figure includes large loads of branches and non-mixed compostable material like leaves and grass clippings, delivered to the scales at the landfill.

As well, new bins distributed this season numbered 546, keeping with an upward trend that saw 450 handed out in 2019 and 300 in 2018. About 13,000 households now use green carts out of 21,000 that use grey bin (general) solid waste collection.

Garland is also expected general recycling numbers to rise as Hatters dispose of more cardboard packaging over the course of the pandemic. Each year the landfill buries about 40,000 tonnes of material.

The city’s program keeps organic material out of the landfill’s main cells, and the compost produced is used by the parks department, sold in bulk to wholesalers and is available in smaller sacks to residents.

The department also earns carbon offset credits under the Alberta TIER program as it prevents buried waste from producing methane that would escape into the atmosphere.

Those are swapped with the power plant, which would otherwise have to buy credits.