Reminder - Don’t Put Food Waste in Your Green Bin - Pilot Project Has Expired

Yard waste collection starts on April 7.

The City has told The Medicine Hat Owl that food waste is NOT being collected anymore, only yard waste goes into the green bin. Collection of food waste was a pilot project from April - December 2024. Until the City decides to expand the program beyond the pilot project, food waste is not being collected this year.

The Pilot Project

Last year, a number of households were selected to be part of a pilot project to collect food waste in the yard waste bins. Participants were given a small bucket to use indoors to collect food waste.

The results? 

A 30% reduction in food waste going to the regular garbage bins.

This helps extend the life of our landfill as well as creating something very valuable - compost aka Black Gold.

Using compost

• Adds organic matter back to your soil 

• Reduces the need for fertilizer

• Reduces the need for water

A new landfill is estimated to cost between $60-90 million. Reducing the amount of waste in the black garbage bins reduces the need for garbage pickup. Calgary and Edmonton are among many municipalities that only pick up garbage every 2 weeks.

Yard Waste Collection is from April 7 - Nov 14 2025