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Organic material and how to sort

Green organics cart icon Organic material placed in your green cart will break down in the City's eight week composting process. Organic waste like food scraps and yard trimmings can be composted into valuable soil instead of ending up in the landfill.

Green organics carts

Collection frequency: weekly in summer and bi-weekly collection in winter. Learn about cart placement.
Accepted items: food scraps (including spoiled food), yard waste, pet waste and kitty litter as well as cage shavings. Unsure where an item belongs? View the Cart smart tool: Where does it go?.
Cart use:

The lid must close. Save space in your green cart by cutting branches smaller to make more room. Save excess yard waste until your next collection day, when material will fit into the cart.
Excess and large yard waste, such as big branches, tree stumps, extra leaves, branches, or grass, can be taken to the Transfer Site for a fee (no food or pet waste). The Transfer Site does not accept food, dirt or sod.
Plastic, glass, construction material, wood and metal is either recyclable or garbage.
Line your kitchen catcher with newspaper or a certified compostable bag.
Branches must be under one metre (3 ft) long and 10 cm (4 in) in diameter.
Put material in loose or in a certified compostable bag. Only use bags with one of the following symbols (‘Biodegradable’ does not mean compostable).

What materials are organics?

Use your green cart for food scraps and other compostable items. See what’s accepted below.

Food, bones, oils and tea bags

Materials	Location and sorting
Leftovers such as meat, fish, dairy, produce and breads (remove from containers or bags) bones, shells, seeds, pits and peels sauces, jams and dressing (no containers) cooking oils and fats (let hot oil & fat cool, absorb with paper material first) Coffee filters, grounds and tea bags	Green organics cart Remove food from packaging Line your kitchen catcher with newspaper or a certified compostable bag

Paper, cardboard and small wooden items

Materials	Location and sorting
Greasy pizza boxes Napkins, paper towels and tissue Parchment paper French fry boxes Fast food paper wrapping like hamburger wrappers and paper straws Greasy kraft paper bags paper muffin liners Popsicle sticks Toothpicks, wooden skewers, stir sticks and chopsticks	Green organics cart

Yard waste (branches, sod, leaves)

Materials	Location and sorting
Small branches (less than 1.5cm in diameter and no longer than 1m) Leaves, flowers and grass clippings sod (only fill the bin half full due to weight limitations) hay and straw	Green organics cart Excess and large yard waste, such as big branches, tree stumps, extra leaves, branches, or grass, can be taken to the Transfer Site for a fee (no food or pet waste) Branches must be under one metre (3 ft) long and 10 cm (4 in) in diameter
Excess yard waste including leaves, branches, grass and large stumps	Transfer Site (does not accept food, dirt or sod)

Pet waste

Materials	Location and sorting
pet waste (dog or cat poop) and cat litter (only compostable bags) bedding made of organic materials pet fur, hair and feathers pet food and treats	Green organics cart

Holiday materials

Some holiday-specific materials can be recycled through our seasonal programs. Visit our Holiday waste and recycling tips to find out what to do with items like Christmas lights, trees for chipping, and pumpkins after Halloween.

BluPlanet Curbside Collection Trucks

Our curbside collection trucks allow us to monitor progress via GPS and cameras.

The information collected by the BluPlanet collection trucks is under the authority of Section 4(c) of the Protection of Privacy Act (the “Act”) and will be used for the purposes of administering the City of Airdrie's Waste and Recycling programs and collection quality assurance. It will be treated in accordance with the privacy protection provisions of the Act. Questions concerning collection of this information can be directed to general.inquiries@airdrie.ca.