The rollout for Coquitlam's new garbage, green waste and recycling pickup starts next week, after Canada Day.
And city hall staff will be on standby, extending their customer service hours for two weeks to help guide residents through the transition, which includes, for many residents, a change in pickup days.
Starting July 2, when the change-over happens, the city's engineering department hotline will be open for 12 hours a day. Call 604-927-3500 from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. for more information about the new automated system, handled by BFI Canada.
For those residents who are unaware, here's the lowdown with the new municipal collection:
Garbage will be picked up every other week.
Food scraps and yard trimmings will be picked up weekly.
Recycling will be picked up weekly (by Smithrite, which has been contracted by Multi-Material BC).
Items not allowed in the garbage include: recyclables, oil or oil filters, rocks, dirt, sod, pesticides, electronics, medications and pet waste. Tracy Kyle, Coquitlam's acting manager of environmental services, said doggie doo should be dropped in the toilet and the used bag put in the trash cart; cat solids should also be filtered out and disposed of in the toilet.
Residents who repeatedly flout the solid-waste bylaw by placing such banned waste in their garbage, as well as those who leave their garbage outside the cart or outside the specified times, could face fines up to $1,000.
Some other requirements under the new Coquitlam system:
Residents must place their garbage or green waste carts at the curbside between 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. on pickup day - not the night before.
Carts must be placed one metre away from each other, and 1.5 m away from any vehicles, with the arrows on the carts pointing toward the road.
Residents are asked to review the new collection schedule that is inside the new city carts, which were delivered over the last month along with kitchen catchers (which hold organic waste that can then be transferred to the green waste cart).
Kyle said the collection zones have been reorganized for some residents to accommodate the rapidly growing Monday zone in northeast Coquitlam. The zone change affects about 7,400 Coquitlam homes. To confirm your new collection day, visit coquitlam.ca/curbsidecollection, where you can type in your address to determine your pickup schedule.
As for the old garbage cans, the city will be collecting them this fall. But if your can has a 1, 2, 4 or 5 recycling code and you wish to get rid of it earlier, you may take it to Wastech on United Boulevard to be recycled for free.
Meanwhile, Coquitlam residents who get city garbage collection will also see a change to their recyclables pickup starting on July 2.
The industry group Multi-Material BC is handling the recycling collection in Coquitlam and, Kyle said, under the new weekly system, residents will place at the curb their existing blue boxes and blue and yellow bags, plus the new light-blue box for glass that was delivered along with the new garbage carts.
Visit coquitlam.ca/trashtalk for information on the new garbage system. To learn more about MMBC, visit multimaterialbc.ca.
