Green cart program sees more than 3,000 tonnes of organic material diverted
With city-wide Green Cart collection now into a second month, participation in the new waste diversion program is steadily increasing. The rate of carts set out on their scheduled collection day for green carts averaged 66 per cent in May, increasing over the month to 75 per cent in the final week. Black cart set out rates historically average at 77 percent. In the month of May, the City collected 3,123 tonnes of organic waste, more than half the amount received from the entire green cart subscription program in 2022.
The City of Saskatoon is aware of a social media post regarding a fire involving a green cart. The City has not received any reports regarding fires in green carts. Organic materials break down during the composting process and they create heat. However, the heat generated is never great enough to ignite the materials approved for disposal in green carts.
Some materials that are not accepted in the green cart could pose a fire risk of improperly disposed if in the green cart. These include residential fire pit ash and briquettes, cigarettes and butts, hazardous substances, batteries, compressed gases and explosives.
To date, approximately 1.3 per cent (40 tonnes) of green cart collections have needed to be landfilled due to contamination. As a reminder to residents, only BPI-certified compostable bags are accepted. If there are visible contaminants, such as garbage bags, carts will not be collected. Additional effort and expense is required to remove contamination from organic waste and can result in a lower quality finished compost product.
For a full list of accepted materials, visit saskatoon.ca/greencart. If you’re not sure where to dispose of something, ask the Saskatoon Waste Wizard at saskatoon.ca/wastewizard or download the app.