There may have been snow on the ground right just a couple of days ago, but spring is right around the corner.
With that comes the scramble to get ready for gardening season and the resumption of yard waste collection in the Central Okanagan, which will begin for the year on March 1.
Rae Stewart, the Regional District of Central Okanagan’s waste reduction facilitator, says that means it’s time to do a pre-season check up of your yard waste cart.
“Make sure to take out any materials that don’t belong and may have landed in your yard waste cart by mistake over the winter months,” she explained.
“Anything at all that is not yard waste and could damage equipment or compromise the composting process must be removed before you put your cart out at the curb.”
That includes plastics, flower pots, garbage, bags of any kind, pet waste, recycling materials, rocks, sod or soil.
It’s vitally important to keep those kinds of materials out of your cart, as yard waste collected subside is composed and given new life as a valuable soil enhancer.
“Last year alone, the program collected just under 15,000 tonnes of yard waste at the curb and turned it into high quality compost instead of it being buried at the landfill,” said an RDCO release.
Yard waste, which includes leaves, tree needles, branches, prunings under five centimetres in diameter and one metre in length, wood chips, barks, plants, fruit droppings and grass clippings are all acceptable.
For more information on yard waste collection, or to inquire about purchasing or replacing a cart, visit the RDCO website.
