Since their current contract is expiring at the end of this year, Ponoka councillors decided to go a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly route for its curbside collection program for waste, recycling and compost for 2019.

They have chosen the contractor Can Pak, who has given them an option to get rid of compostable materials more efficiently.

Albert Flootman, CAO of Ponoka says their last system wasn’t as effective since old food and biodegradable items were heavy and made the weight of their trash more than it needs to be.  

“It's food scraps, its wet, and it weighs a lot and we pay by the ton to have our garbage disposed of so by diverting the food waste to composting we will reduce our long-term cost as well." 

Flootman says that residents agreed that the new plan was much more sustainable and made more sense for their long-term goal. “They responded yes they were definitely interested in that and then we found that we were able to include this in and actually significantly reduce our costs with the new contract.”

Residents can now place food waste and yard waste year-round in their green carts, including:

  • kitchen food scraps
  • meat
  • fish bones
  • food-soiled paper and cardboard
  • pet waste and cat litter (loose or in compostable bags)
  • wood shavings
  • coffee grinds
  • tea bags
  • popsicle sticks (wooden)
  • toothpicks (wooden)
  • cooking oil (small amounts)
  • nuts
  • shells.

Recyclables and garbage will also now be picked up on the same day and compost in the green carts will be picked up on alternate weeks. Organic waste in the green carts will be picked up weekly from May 1 to October 31 and bi-weekly from November 1 to April 30.

Ponoka waste contractors will remove the existing grey and green carts from residences on December 20th, 21st, and 31st and request that people put out both bins for their collection on those days.

New grey and green carts will be delivered on January 2nd.

For more information on all the changes to the curbside collection program, you can click here to visit the Town of Ponoka’s website.