There is more than enough filling our calendar. What we long for is spaciousness. Remembering to take out the trash or sort through the recycling before pickup day may not exactly make its way to the top of your list.
Opening up your drapes to the sight of all your neighbours’ garbage carts lining the street can throw you off your game for the day. Fortunately, this is one time that technology can come to the rescue.
While none of us need another reason to be staring at a screen, getting a gentle digital reminder that garbage day is on the horizon may be helpful.
Signing up for garbage and recycling pickup day reminders is a possibility in many municipalities these days. Whether it’s a text message, email, Twitter, iCalendar, voice message reminder or smartphone app setting, residents can self-select how far in advance they need to receive their reminder.
City of Powell River currently has all but the app service available for free signup online. Residents enter their street address and their preferred reminder format and timing, and voilà, a reminder is sent weekly.
This schedule reminder also forwards special advisories related to weather, holidays and other potential interruptions to garbage and recycling services. If you’re more of a luddite who prefers a simple printout for your fridge or recycling nook, you can access the schedule online and print it out for easy reference anytime.
One planning tip for your household is to note that pickup days shift every so often because of holidays. Usually, following a holiday, the pickup is one day later, unless the holiday is more than one day, or your pickup was already landing on a Friday, in which case it would shift to Monday.
If that has you scratching your head, it’s time to sign up for a reminder service.
Many communities are shifting over to a digital app reminder service, which can be intimidating at first, but any youngster in your life can likely get you rolling when that happens. Stay tuned for the app’s arrival in Powell River.
Perhaps you’re wondering about what is allowed into your recycling bin these days. If so, there are also ways to have that cloud of confusion lift.
The city’s Waste Wizard is a great place to start looking for local drop locations for all manner of recyclables. A helpful thing to note is that curbside recycling does not accept glass containers, styrofoam, or plastic bags of any kind, but all of these can go to any of the six recycling depots in qathet Regional District.
Newcomers to the regional district will want to check out the Waste Wise Guide, which has information on local recycling including where to take less common items like thermometers and used oil. This guide also includes details about the city’s composting pilot program, which currently has two drop-off locations in town: Town Centre Recycling Depot for smaller loads and Sunshine Disposal on Franklin Avenue for loads that include yard and garden materials.
The Waste Wide Guide is downloadable and printable, and it is soon to be updated to include the shift of milk and milk substitute beverage containers to the deposit Return-It program from curbside. These containers, however, can still be dropped off at depots or placed in curbside recycling, they simply won’t be eligible for their deposit there.
Enjoy spring cleaning your garbage and recycling habits.
Let’s Talk Trash is qathet Regional District’s waste reduction education program. For more information, email [email protected] or go to LetsTalkTrash.ca.
