City of Saskatoon says kitchen pails left hanging on green bins are leading to missed collections

Some Saskatoon residents haven't taken the included kitchen compost pail off their green bins and it’s leading to missed collections.

As part of the recent rollout of the new organic waste bins to homes in the city, a smaller reusable pail intended to collect kitchen waste was zip-tied to each bin.

According to the city's environmental operations manager, any green carts pushed to the curb with the kitchen bins still attached are getting skipped.

"Operators are not collecting carts if the kitchen pail is still attached as there is a high likelihood that it would fall off into the truck load and it is not an accepted material," Brock Storey said in an emailed statement.

He said the more contaminants that end up in the organics truck — potentially in this case, the plastic kitchen containers — the higher the cost to process the material.

"We want residents to make use of all the resources provided as part of our green cart program," Storey said.

He says everyone should ideally "make a home for their kitchen pail inside their house."