Hello May!
One of our focuses on the Green Initiative Committee is waste management. We implement tactical ways to redirect waste produced within Mount Pleasant and we work to communicate awareness of recycling and composting programs that are available to the community.
This month’s article features a few helpful guides to the waste management options available in our community and city, shares some stats from the 2022 Sustainable Cities Index report, and ends with a revisit to a challenge from last year.
City of Calgary Waste Management Options:
• Take advantage of the City’s hazardous waste recycling. Items that are accepted are automotive chemicals, batteries, motor oil, garden and chemical pests, cleaning chemicals, and home renovations. Just to name a few! For a full list please visit https://www.calgary.ca/waste/residential/household-hazardous-waste-drop-off-program.html. All materials must be stored, labelled, and sealed properly. There are multiple locations across the city.
• Household blue cart: These carts can accept many items but not all and sometimes it is hard to recall precisely what can go in your blue cart. The City has a helpful tool to tell you what goes where. It can be found here: https://www.calgary.ca/waste/what-goes-where/default.html.
• Lastly, of course, are the household green cart items that keep many things out of the black carts and can go into the City’s composting facilities. Items accepted in these carts are food waste, food-soiled paper, yard waste, and even pet waste! For a full list visit https://www.calgary.ca/waste/residential/green-cart.html.
Also, did you know that if you are looking to learn more about waste management, you can call 3-1-1 to book a tour of a landfill, compost, or recycling facility?
Hopefully, you’ve taken advantage of the Community Cleanup this year. This is one of the major events that we bring to the community by partnering with the City and community vendors to redirect household items that may otherwise end up in a landfill.
While these initiatives are great to see and are also growing better each year, there is still a lot of work to do. According to the first-ever Sustainable Cities Index performed by Corporate Knights, Calgary got a D on our solid waste generated per capita rating. Also, according to this report, “Urbanization and rapid population growth is expected to result in an increase in annual waste by 70% from 2016 levels by 2050” (Corporate Knights, 2022).
A challenge we proposed last year was to conduct a waste audit in your home. It is a small step to bringing awareness to the waste that we all mindlessly produce. So, if you did not get a chance to get to it last year, and even if you did, here it is again. Keep track of the amount that goes into your black cart, (by weight, size of garbage bin or bag), write it down and make a point to reduce this every month for the rest of the year. See if you can hit a 70% reduction!
If you have ideas that you want to share on how to better waste management or if you want to get involved and be a part of making Mount Pleasant a greener community, we would love to have you join the committee. Please email [email protected] for more information or if you have any questions. As well, please check out our Mount Pleasant Green Initiatives group on Facebook! You can find us on the Mount Pleasant Community Association page. The Facebook group is a great place to share knowledge and resources and check in to see what others are saying.
Have a great month,
The MPCA Green Initiatives Committee
References: Corporate Knights. (2022, June). 2022 Sustainable Cities Report. Retrieved from Corporate Knights: https://www.corporateknights.com.
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