With the new cart system starting in the City of Winnipeg this week, you will have to find some new uses for your garbage cans and your blue boxes!
Your garbage cans and recycling bins could be used as a container for the new Spring to Fall bi-weekly yard waste curbside pick-up (if you have more than your compost bins can handle!) since the City will no longer collect yard waste in plastic bags. The reason for not accepting plastic bags is that plastic does not break down and therefore will contaminate the finished compost being made with the yard waste.
If you compost at home, you might not even be putting any leaf and yard waste on the curbside for pickup so here are other ideas for you.
Garbage Cans
You can easily transform your old plastic garbage can into a compost bin. All you need is a drill (ideally with a “hole saw” attachment) and drill holes on the side and bottom. It’s a smaller bin then normal but it still works and the compost might even heat up too if you aerate the contents regularly! Or your old garbage can could be placed beside your compost bin to conveniently store your leaves since leaves do need to be added to cover your “green” materials! Need more information on composting? Green Action Centre has lots of tips on composting on our website and you could even attend one of our composting workshops too!
Blue Boxes
Many of you might find it useful to keep your blue boxes in your home as a way to collect your recyclables and then transfer them in your recycling cart. You could also use your blue box to store other household items or even use it for container gardening. If you would rather give your boxes away, Winnipeg Harvest would be happy to take them and use them for food storage and container gardening. The City of Winnipeg will be announcing a plan to deal with the recycling boxes, according to the Winnipeg Free Press article “Garbage cans and blue boxes are out, automated carts are in” published on Sept 29th.
If you have more ideas on uses for our garbage cans and blue boxes, please share your ideas on this blog page.
