I always used to be so confused following holidays – that is, before I put on my super hero outfit to help out residents in the City of Hamilton recycle!

This week, only people whose stuff usually is picked up on Friday are affected. Their stuff will be picked up on Saturday this week. The Community Recycling Centres are also closed on Good Friday, so don’t schedule your clean up day then!

For Easter Monday, there are no changes to any pick up days. Our hard working staff who pick up your stuff will be working hard on Monday as usual. The Community Recycling Centres are also open on Monday – so if you are lucky enough to have to day off, it is a great opportunity to take any old electronics or hazardous waste you might have been waiting to get rid of. The Community Recycling Centre also accepts a lot of other stuff. Check out the Community Recycling Centre webpage to find out hours of operation and a list of everything they accept.

Happy Easter!!

With the new garbage pick-up calendar arriving, you may notice the increased number of 3 bag pick-up days on the last full week of each month. During these weeks, you are allowed to put out a total of 3 bags of garbage on your pick-up day. However, we still hope to see most residents doing their best to keep under 1 bag a week to avoid unnecessary strain on our only operational landfill.

a)    Foods of all kinds go in your green bin, but that’s not all! You can also put in popcorn and fast food bags, Tim Horton’s and other waxed paper cups, dryer lint, paper towel, tissues, hair, nail clippings, wet newspaper, and greasy pizza boxes.

b)    Reduce and reuse come before recycling for a reason. Reduce the amount of products coming into your home so you end up with less garbage you need to toss out. Additionally, try to reuse things as much as possible. For example, gift wrap is often thrown out after the first use, but this wrapping can easily be used again to wrap another gift, line a drawer, or create some intricate art!

c)     Your old books, knick-knacks, kitchenware, or clothes can make someone else very happy. Though the garbage is an easy solution, take the extra time to donate them to let someone else make use of the items. There are many places across the city that would be happy to accept them. The mountain Community Recycling Centre located at 37 Kilbride Road even has a reuse store where you can drop off stuff you don’t need anymore.

d)    You can put out as much recycling as you want each week, so try buying products in recyclable packaging such as cardboard boxes or stretchy plastic bags; buying in bulk is a great way to reduce your waste, since the bags and containers are recyclable! Hard molded plastic that does not have the numbers 1, 2, 5, or 6 in the recycling logo is NOT recyclable and belongs in the garbage; avoid it when you can!

Together we can all work hard to continue reducing the amount of stuff we send to landfill by making use of all the other great programs offered for recycling in the City of Hamilton!

It’s time to take down the Christmas tree – if you used a real tree this year, here are some reminders to make sure your tree is picked up on your collection day!

• Click here to see if you are in a purple zone or yellow zone
• Trees will be picked up from houses in purple zones January 9-13
• Trees will be picked up form houses in yellow zones January 16-20
• Make sure you remove all ornaments and lights from trees before putting them at the curb. Trees with plastic bags over them will not be collected.
• Make sure your tree is at the curb on your collection day in the correct week by 7:00am

We recently had a meeting with the staff at the recycling and composting facilities.

Listed here are the main contaminants they are finding in the recycling and composting streams. Are you an offender? Check out the list and see if there is anything you need to brush up on!

In the green carts:

• glass (all glass jars go in the container bin, broken glass should be sealed in a cardboard box clearly marked “broken glass”)
• hard plastic (Plastic does not compost - if it has #1,2,5 or 6 inside the recycling symbol, put it in the container bin. Otherwise it is garbage)
• fruit stickers (Take the sticker off fruit right when you get home from the grocery store so that if the fruit goes rotten you don’t have to pick the sticker off a mouldy fruit)
• meat still in styrofoam trays
• veggies still in the produce bag with elastic band on them

In the blue boxes:

• bagged recyclables (bag all of your stretchy bags, but leave papers and containers loose)
• gable top containers, like milk cartons, juice boxes and ice cream containers are being placed in the paper bin (they belong in the container bin)
• wax cardboard – like produce boxes from the grocery store belong in the garbage
• paper coffee cups in the paper bin (put them in the green bin)
• batteries in recycling bins (they are hazardous waste, collect them and take them to a Community Recycling Centre for free)
• non-numbered plastic, like plastic packaging, coat hangars, toys, and plastic cutlery in the container bin (this is all garbage)

Did you find out something you were doing wrong? Let us know!

Join us this Saturday September 17th for an open house of our composting and recycling facilities from 10am until 3pm.
Get up close with the machines we use to sort your recycling. Learn why we want you to keep your papers and containers separate. Hear from our experts how we take your green cart stuff (like coffee cups, chicken bones, toe nails and more) and turn it into black gold that can be used as a natural soil amendment for farms.

First 100 people to register for a tour will receive a free reusable water bottle. We have lots of other giveaways too, but we’re keeping those a secret until you get there!

After you tour the facilities, visit the main tent for a BBQ catered by Harvey’s (for a monetary donation of your choice to food share) and chat with some sustainable living experts at our outdoor eco-fair.

This will be a fun day for the whole family. Be sure to fit it in your calendar!

We’ll see you there!

1579 Burlington Street East (between Kenilworth and Parkdale)

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