I was really excited to find out that our neighbourhood would be one of the first to get the new green bin this year, since we eagerly awaited the beloved blue recycling bin for a long time.

The city's website tells us that "each home in the pilot will receive a green cart, paper yard waste bags, kitchen pail and compostable liners. Households will also receive an information package with the carts including a collection schedule...The green carts will be collected every week like blue carts."

This sounded great until I realised...hey, wait a minute, I'm already composting! All our leaves and food wastes go into one of two of the black composters we bought from the city a decade ago. It takes about a year to harvest the compost with minimal maintenance and we use the end product to build our garden soil. I still plan to continue using the composters, so what about the green bin...?

Most Calgarians don't compost and, according to the city, organics account for 60% of the landfill. Wouldn't it be nice to see over 50% less waste in the future, and the water and nutrients reused instead of trapped in anaerobic conditions where they don't break down? I reckon our neighbours can "borrow" our green bin for their yard waste, diverting even more out of the landfill.

For more information about the green bins, go to Calgary.ca/greencart