St. Albert green thumbs can now breathe a sigh of relief that the long compost giveaway lineups are a thing of the past. Effective Tuesday, the city is offering a seasonal giveaway and residents can pick up their own compost at their leisure.
Christian Benson, waste programs co-ordinator with the city’s public works department, expressed his optimism that this will be a much better arrangement for everyone involved. Those previous one-day events held in the spring and fall were no picnics in the park for people on either side of the equation.
“They were usually exceptionally popular,” he stated, later adding, “They were fairly labour intensive. We had to have staff bag the material.”
The other complaints that the public had were that there usually wasn’t enough to go around and that there was such a small window of opportunity to get in on the compost.
Now, the seasonal compost giveaway allows city residents to collect their own compost using containers up to a maximum volume of 40 litres. The material can be obtained at the recycling depot located at 7 Chevigny St. during normal operating hours.
Prospective recipients will need to bring identification, as city staff on site will first check proof of residency to ensure that only St. Albert residents have access to the compost. People are even welcome to come back and collect additional compost if they need more.
“It does allow them to take quite a bit more than our former program,” Benson said. “We’re able to bring in a lot more compost – about five times the amount typically brought in – thanks to the success of the city’s curbside green bin organic collections.”
The giveaway will last until all the compost is gone. Public works will gauge how well the program is received but the city is already anticipating that a new giveaway will appear in spring 2014.
More information about the compost giveaway site, including site regulations and hours, can be found online at www.stalbert.ca/recyclingdepot.
