Blue Box Blues

Beiseker is one of the smallest communities in this province to offer a complete curbside pickup of most recyclables! 

We recycle cardboard, household metal, plastic, newsprint, and bond paper, all of which are picked up in the blue boxes every Wednesday morning! We offer drop-off recycling/disposal facilities for used oil, paint, batteries, tires, appliances, furniture, mattresses, and e-cycling material.  We do not recycle domestic glass.  Glass recycling will resume when a suitable glass recycling receiver can be found. 

Our program is one of the most comprehensive recycling projects to be offered in Alberta!  Unfortunately, it has come under scrutiny in these tough economic times as being too expensive to continue.  All of our volunteer recycling team has moved on, leaving all the work of recycling to our Public Works Staff.

Council agreed to continue the program until more information is acquired.  The first item on the "hit list" is the Blue Box pick up service.  Is this service being used to its maximum?  Would folks be willing to haul their blue boxes down to the Recycling Shed in the Public Works Yard, if picked up was discontinued?  Or would most recycling end up in Friday's garbage to be hauled to Drumheller and buried, if the Blue Box Pick Up was discontinued?

I, with former Beiseker Village Councilor Fred Bell, started our extensive recycling program many years ago and I am very proud of it.  What can we do to save it?

Trash Talk

I've heard from a few of you wanting more information on Beiseker's garbage, composting, and recycling program, so here's the scoop.

Garbage:  All of our garbage is is placed in a large container called a Transtor, then trucked to Drumheller by the Drumheller and District Solid Waste Management Association.  We are a member of that association.  Once it reaches the Drumheller site, it is buried in a highly regulated and fully monitored landfill site.

Each residence is allowed three green garbage bags full of garbage per week,  These are picked up each Friday morning and dumped into the two Transtors at our waste management site behind the Public Works building.  A large specially built semi shows up after Garbage Day and hauls it all to Drumheller.

What people throw out in those three green garbage bags is their own business.  As long as it weighs less than 50 pounds (23 Kg.), it's good to go.

We do encourage composting and recycling, but we cannot force folks to do that.

By the way, if you want a fourth or fifth green garbage bag picked up, you must buy a garbage tag for each of them at the Village Office.

Recycling:  Many years ago, I created Beiseker Recycling.  We collected just cardboard, newspaper, and metal.

Since that time, Councillor Fred Walters has advanced our recycling program to include many other products.  Most of these are trucked into Calgary and sold to recyclers.

Beiseker has a very successful blue box program.  Blue boxes full of recyclables are picked up every Friday morning from every residence in the village. We recycle:

• Cardboard
• Newspapers
• bond paper
• metal food cans (washed)
• plastic
• Plastic grocery bags
• glass (washed)
• tires*
• car batteries*
• electronics*
• used oil*
• mattresses and sofas**
• appliances**

The fine print:
* You will have to arrange to have it hauled down there.
** You will have to arrange to have it hauled down there and there may be a fee to dispose of it.

Composting:  This is all those grass clippings, leaves, garden trash, and kitchen scraps (not meat). You have four choices here:

1. You can compost in your yard using one of a number of different methods.  Most have no odor and produces great fertilizer for your gardens.
2. You can haul your composting material down to the community composting pile at our waste management site.  You simply throw onto the top of the pile.  If you need composted material, go aroud to the bottom of the pile and collect yourself some next spring.
3. You could create a garden waste pile at the back of your yard.  Public Works will pick it up twice a year.
4. You could throw it into one of those three green garbage bags and have it sent to Drumheller.  Definitely the least favourable choice and one we discourage. 

So, there it is; the scoop on our waste management.

If you have further questions about Beiseker's waste management programs, the folks at the Village Office can probably answer them.  Give them a call (403) 947-3774