The Town of Okotoks is moving to a biweekly garbage collection schedule, and residents have brought a lot of questions forward.
According to Councillor Swendseid, who recently hosted a "Trash Talk Q&A" on Instagram, the three most common questions and concerns the Town is hearing are about the potential smell of the garbage bins and the different pick-up dates, and residents are wondering why the change was made in the first place.
Concerns over smell
"So, going onto smell, totally understand where folks are coming from," Councillor Swendseid explains. "I think that part of what this rollout will do is it will help folks be able to divert more items from their black bin into their green bin, and realize that their green bin actually can accept more than they might think."
She goes on to explain that all of the stinky items residents are talking about, such as meat, fish, bones, and pet waste, can all go into the green bin, which will still be picked up weekly from spring to autumn.
"So the only stinky thing, really, that would be going into your black bin is diapers, and potentially, like, medical waste."
Councillor Swendseid says she understands the concerns over the smell of diapers sitting in garbage bins, as she has children herself, but unfortunately, unless someone is using a reusable diaper, diapers aren't built in a way that they can easily be recycled.
While there are numerous items that can be diverted to either the organics or the recycling bins, the Town of Okotoks has put together a list of what items go in which bin.
"If you just had, like, fish for dinner or something, and you have all these bones, and you type in fish bones, it'll tell you you can put it into your green bin. So, it's really good."
By diverting more to the recycling and organic bins, it will help not only create less waste going to the dump, but will also help to minimize the smell from the garbage bin.
Regarding different collection dates
Not only is garbage collection moving to bi-weekly, but the garbage bin collection will be happening on a different day than the recycling and organic bins.
Councillor Swendseid says there are concerns about the bins being picked up on different days, but she says there is a mobile waste app that Okotoks residents can get that will provide push notifications the night before the bins should be put out on the curb.
"And the new bins, also, the black bins, will have a sticker on it that says which day of the week it's going to be going out."
While the bins will be picked up on different days from one another, it will be the same day of the week that each bin is picked up.
On top of the Town providing information on what item can go into which bin, the Town has an option on their website that allows residents to type in their address, and it will show which day the bins will be collected.
Why the changes to garbage collection?
Councillor Swendseid explains that one of the things that is important to Council is efficiency, cost savings, and affordability.
"This was presented to council as a way to reduce costs for residents, as well as make our garbage removal system more efficient," Swendseid explains. "And it also adds to our sustainability goals. So council did support it for those three main reasons, affordability, sustainability and operational efficiency."
By making these changes, Swendseid says it will cause a drop in the waste part of the utility bill, and residents will see a decrease between 25 and 35 per cent, which is one of the reasons why Council voted for the change.
"And the other reason too is that our operational efficiency, us making the changes now, will help Okotoks as it grows. What that means is that we won't actually have to increase our fleet and the operational size of it as we grow, because we're implementing a program that is so efficient, and this is why we are going to different pickups of garbage and blue and green bins, because it's much more efficient and effective for the garbage truck operators to pick up when it's only the black bins, and it's faster."
In theory, the Town won't have to add any more trucks as Okotoks grows because the waste collection system is already efficient enough to handle a larger population.
With fewer bins to pick up per trip, it will speed up their collections, and it will help to deal with congestion in neighbourhoods, as there will be fewer bins in the way.
Because the Town is moving to bi-weekly pickup, they are rolling out garbage bins that are twice the size of the average current bin.
Currently, most of the garbage bins in Okotoks are 120 L, but everyone will be switched over to 240 L bins.
"That has been a large concern from residents that already have the 240 L, because they're saying, 'Well, Councillor, I have a 240 L. I am filling it up every week, and now you are going to tell me that it's only going to be once every two weeks?'"
Swendseid says she understands where those people are coming from because those residents obviously needed that size of bin during weekly pickups.
She says this change should help people properly divert items away from the black bins, because the town did an audit of the black bins in 2024 and they found that two-thirds of the items in the black bins could have been diverted to one of the other bins.
If a household isn't able to divert enough items to other bins, people are able to purchase extra garbage bins from the Town for $5 a bag.
Councillor Swendseid wants people to know that Town Council supported this change, because of the cost savings that will be passed to residents, as well as the efficiencies it will create.
"And I want to make that very clear, because some folks say, Well, you know, that any cost savings are going back to council, and they're going to be funding this program, or they're using it to fund their increase in salaries. That is not the case."
Swendseid also pointed out that on top of the cost savings, this change will hopefully allow the local landfill to have a longer lifespan.
The landfill just south of Okotoks is shared by Okotoks, Diamond Valley, High River, and Nanton, and only has about 70 years left before it will fill up if more items aren't diverted from the black bins.
By diverting items away from the trash, it will extend the lifetime of the landfill.
A new program is also beginning in Alberta, called the Extended Producer Responsibility program, which will begin in May, and will require the producers of the materials to be in charge of disposing or recycling the material.
"And so, what that means for residents is the recycling bill is actually going to be zero now, and that's why we're seeing those such large increases."
To learn more about waste pickup in Okotoks, head over to their website.
To watch Councillor Swendseid's Trash Talk Q and A, check out her Instagram page here.