Curbside Collection Program – Your Questions Answered

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Recently we've seen a number of questions regarding the curbside collection program--questions about black waste carts, green organics carts and blue bags. 

At anytime, it's important to know that residents can contact the Eco-smart Hotline at ecosmart@leduc.ca or 780-980-7107 (during regular business hours) to ask any questions you may have. Our Eco-smart hotline can chat with you about:

  • Why we use blue bags instead of blue bins
  • Why glass is not accepted in blue bags
  • Why soft shell (clam shell) containers are not welcome in blue bags, even if they have the recycling symbol
  • What goes in the black waste cart and what goes in the organics green cart
  • Why we do inspections
  • Services at the Eco Station
  • Any other waste and recycling questions you may have

To get the ball rolling, we have compiled the following:

BLACK CARTS are collected bi-weekly to reduce the amount of waste sent to the landfill. It also reduces the cost to you, the resident. How so? When the landfill is full, collection fees will increase as the material will need to be processed differently or trucked to a different facility. After sorting, if you still require additional waste capacity, there are options:

GREEN CARTS are collected weekly starting in the spring (April), ending in the fall (November), when the collection frequency is moved to every second week (opposite black carts) for the winter. Spring, summer and fall collection is weekly due to the larger amount of material for composting, including yard waste.

  • Inspections occur periodically to check for cart contamination. One single cart can contaminate an entire truckload, causing that truck to be redirected to the landfill rather than composting, which drives up the cost. 
  • Note: these inspections are legal per our Waste Bylaw 

BLUE BAGS are collected weekly year-round.

  • All recyclables must be clean and dry.
  • The maximum allowable weight for a blue bag out for collection is 26 kg.
  • Due to changes in the global recycling market, we made some changes to our recycling program to meet new industry standards. One of these changes includes putting soft and single-use plastic products into waste cards. Clam shell containers are made from soft, flexible plastic, so they are not recyclable in our local program. 

For more information, please visit the following links: