City removes green bins from Saskatoon retirement community following protest

A Saskatoon retirement community that protested the city’s rollout of green cart composting got their wish — their carts are gone.

Residents of Rosewood Estates lined up more than a dozen of the carts in an act of protest on Saturday, arguing as condo residents they had little organic waste to dump.

Brock Storey, the city’s environmental operations manager, confirmed the carts were picked up Tuesday morning.

“The carts that had been lined up along Ledingham Drive were removed because they were posing a traffic hazard,” he said.

Single-family residences won’t be able to refuse the carts so quickly, said Storey.

“The majority of single-family residences will not have the opportunity to refuse their green cart until fall.”

Storey said it’s important to note that all residents eligible for the green cart program will be charged the monthly utility fee once collection starts next month, whether they use it or not.

 

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Rosewood Estates resident Aime Decae says part of his frustration was he didn’t feel the community had an opportunity to provide their input on the program.

“We just want to stop this type of thing again,” Decae told CTV News on Saturday.

“There’s been too many snafus by the City of Saskatoon. Let’s stop, look, listen, and talk about it before we act.”

Decae said he called the City of Saskatoon and was told the carts wouldn’t be picked up until September, so he was surprised to find them gone on Tuesday morning.

Storey says other cities that rolled out similar programs saw requests to opt out go down after residents had time to try the new service.

“With the switch to bi-weekly garbage collection and given the reality that more than half of the waste we find in black carts can actually go in your green cart, we encourage all residents that have received carts to give them a try.”

-With files from John Flatters