Now that Hamilton has a one bag garbage limit,
there’s no better time to start making the most of your green cart. Picked up at
your curb every week, green carts are the perfect place to put all the
compostable household waste that
isn’t suitable for your backyard compost.
For new residents, or Hamiltonians that aren’t yet familiar
with their green cart, Waste Management’s Queen of Green Jacquie Colangelo
offers the following helpful tips that will help reduce the amount of
compostable items going to the landfill.
Dirty wet paper: Different
than paper for the blue box, which must be clean and dry. Dirty, soggy papers
and paper products such as used tissues, paper towels, napkins, paper cups and
plates aren’t suitable for your backyard composter, but your green cart is the
perfect place for them. These wet products can be tossed in with your other
compostables. Use newspapers, flyers and other pieces of paper to line your
mini bin, making for easy cleanup each time you dump the contents into the
larger cart.
Kitchen compostables:
Egg shells, coffee grinds, veggies, bread, meat and bones are among the
most commonly composted kitchen items that go in your green cart. In
particular, meat scraps and bones are better suited for your green cart than
your backyard composter because they can attract animals on the hunt for
dinner. The protein found in meat is what attracts flies to your green cart,
creating the perfect breeding ground for them to lay eggs that will hatch into
unwanted maggots. To prevent this from happening in your green cart, wrap or
cover meats in newspaper, wax paper, or another compostable item that will keep
the flies at bay. You can also freeze your meat scraps in a compostable bag or
wrapped in newspaper and toss it into your green cart on pick up day.
Keeping it clean: Flies
and maggots are just two of the unwanted critters that will be attracted to the
moist environment provided by your green cart. While covering your meat, or freezing the
scraps until pick up day will help, you should also clean your green cart regularly,
keep it out of direct sunlight and away from fences, deck rails and patio
furniture to prevent bigger pests from climbing up and getting inside.
Colangelo says you don’t need to use any cleaning products
on your green cart itself, but a mild soap and water mixture is the perfect
solution to rinsing out your mini bin. And if you’ve already got maggots in
your cart, the best ways to get rid of them is to leave the lid open in direct
sunlight to dry them out and let the birds eat them.
If you do want to line your green cart to keep it cleaner,
it’s best to use paper yard waste
bags, or liners that feature the compostable logo on the outside of the product
to ensure they are green cart acceptable.
For more information on how you can use your green cart effectively,
visit
www.hamilton.ca/waste.
