Community Cleanups: save yourself a trip to the landfill

As you begin your annual cleaning, look for a Community Cleanup event near you at www.calgary.ca/cleanup.

Each year from April to September, The City partners with local community associations and their volunteers to help you dispose of unwanted household items and property waste that may not fit in your black or blue carts. Community cleanups are open to all Calgarians, regardless of residence, community or event date. If you miss the event closest to you, don’t be discouraged, as you are welcome to all others.

To avoid the inconvenience of bringing an item that is not allowed at the Community Cleanup drop-off event, please refer to the list of accepted and restricted items.

Accepted Items

Accepted items include (but are not limited to) furniture (desks, chairs, sofas, old mattresses, etc.), toilets, and recalled or broken recreational products. Yard waste is also welcome at the organic truck, including: leaves, untreated wood, and tree branches preferably in a paper bag (excluding sod), but do watch out for more information on the launch of the Green Cart program rolling out this spring.

Restricted Items 

​Garbage trucks will not accept the following items:	​Some cleanups may accept additional items for recycling. Check your community association website for details. These include:
​No car batteries	​Baby car seats
​No glass (e.g. window panes, glass table top etc.)	​Cell phone and cell phone batteries
​No household appliances with freon (e.g. refrigerator, freezer) and no microwaves	​ Paper shredding
​No liquids (e.g. cooking oil)	Home appliances (free store item)
​No large metal items (e.g. lawnmower, barbecue, etc.)	​Home electronics
​No household hazardous waste including: Propane tanks Paint  Automobile, cleaning, healthcare and gardening chemicals. These materials can be brought directly to a household hazardous waste drop-off location.	​Large pieces of furniture
No railway ties	​Scrap metal (such as BBQs, lawnmowers, filing cabinets, etc.)
​ No sod or dirt

Please note that garbage trucks at the events will NOT accept the following restricted items: metal, home electronics, home appliances, tires, bicycles, car batteries, gas, liquids, metals, propane tanks or paint. However, some community associations do arrange for special services to dispose of these prohibited items. Please check with your community association for additional disposal opportunities and recycling services for items such as electronics, metals, bicycles, baby car seats and tires, as many offer these services at the scheduled events for a small fee.

Unsure of what materials you can recycle? Utilize the comprehensive tool, What Goes Where? for facts on recycling specific items.

 
Take part in your neighbourhood’s Community Cleanup
If you’re able to help out with a cleanup or if you would like to find out more about your local event, please contact your community association.

For more information on the Community Cleanup program and the 2017 schedule, please visit calgary.ca/cleanup.

Last year, 109 Community Cleanups were held across the city with 1.44 million kilograms of waste collected (1.19 million kg in garbage and 248,000 kg in organics). A record 116 Community Cleanups are scheduled this year, so grab some waste bags and get ready to help declutter your home, garage, yard and neighbourhood.

After a cold and snowy winter, crews set sights on spring road maintenance

Snowier weather could come back at any time, and if it does, crews will be ready for it. But in the meantime, The City’s focus has turned to spring maintenance work.

Crews take on a variety of projects as temperatures rise and roads become drier, including:

·         Clearing catch basins: Crews clear the area around catch basins with a grader so that water can run into it. In some instances, they’ll move ice from the shady side of the street near around a catch basin to the sunny side, where it can melt.

·         Filling potholes: Every year The City of Calgary fills over 10,000 potholes. Due to heavier snowfall over the last several months and the recent freeze-thaw cycle, crews expect to be filling more potholes than last summer. This year, crews are using an asphalt recycler built in-house, which will reduce material costs.

·         Picking up roadside debris: This includes general cleaning and garbage pickup on our streets and boulevards.

·         Training: Both new and seasoned members of City crews take pride in always being fully trained on the latest technologies and machinery. Crews train on new equipment and new techniques for upcoming projects.

If the warm weather trend continues, The City anticipates that Spring Clean-up will launch in early April. Spring Clean-up is the annual street sweeping program that removes sanding materials and debris that has accumulated on roads over winter. Due to heavier snowfall and colder temperatures, crews applied about twice as much salt and gravel material to the roads this winter compared to last year. That means keeping streets clear of vehicles and bins to clear a path for sweepers will be especially important in the coming months. Check Calgary.ca/sweep for program updates coming soon.

Between potholes, windrows, and preparing for Spring-Cleanup, crews will continue to watch for potential snowfall. For questions about snow and ice control, visit Calgary.ca/snow, and if you see a pothole or blocked catch basin, please report it to 311.

City’s Spring Clean-up program to be completed ahead of schedule

This year’s Spring Clean-up program is nearly complete, with crews expected to finish sweeping the final routes over the next few days. That puts the program nearly a full month ahead of schedule.

Normally, street sweeping runs from mid April until the first week of July. This year, crews completed significant pre-sweeping in March and officially started the program on April 3 thanks to mild spring weather. Crews also swept seven days a week, an increase from four days a week last year, which increased the pace of the program. Calgary received only a few days of light rain during Spring Clean-Up, which minimized delays and actually assisted sweeping efforts in some cases.

“With the record-breaking temperatures Calgary has experienced over the past several months, Roads Maintenance was able to start Spring Clean-up two weeks ahead of schedule,” said Roads Maintenance Manager Bill Biensch. “Combined with a reduced amount of snow and ice material place on our roadway, crews were able to reduce the time to complete the program by six weeks. I would like to thank the dedication of our sweeping crews, who adjusted to the lighter conditions to move the program ahead. Thank you to all Calgarians, who cooperated in adjusting to the advanced schedule and in removing cars and blue, black and green carts from City streets."

This year City crews picked up close to 18,000 cubic metres of winter sanding materials, dirt and other debris from Calgary’s roads. That amount of material could fill 75,000 City of Calgary black bins. Spring Clean-up improves safety and mobility for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists by removing sanding materials and other debris that have accumulated on roads and along major sidewalks and boulevards. Finishing the program ahead of schedule also helps protect the environment by ensuring less material enters our storm drain system.

Now that Spring Clean-up has been completed crews will focus on summer maintenance programs including pothole repairs, boulevard maintenance, and gravel lane repair.

Although the Spring Clean-up program has finished, ongoing road maintenance and some sweeping will continue throughout summer months.

To find out more about other City of Calgary Roads Maintenance programs, visit calgary.ca/roads or contact 311.

A record 116 Community Cleanups begin this weekend, run throughout summer

Each year, from April to September, we team up with local community association volunteers to help you dispose of unwanted household items and property waste that may not fit in your black, green or blue carts -- FREE of charge.

A record 116 Community Cleanups are scheduled this year, so grab some gloves and elbow grease and get ready to help beautify your home, yard, and neighbourhood.

One million kg of waste collected 

Last year, 112 Community Cleanups were held across the city.  You cleaned up 1.3 million kilograms (101 million kg in garbage and 222,000 kg in organics) of waste, saving many trips to the landfill.

Each community association books and manages additional disposal and recycling services for electronics, metals, bicycles, car seats, tires, and paint. Check with your community association for details.

Take part in your Community Cleanup

This weekend, there will be events in Palliser, Edgemont, Forest Lawn and Millrise on Saturday, April 23, and in Abbeydale, Auburn Bay, Glendale and Triwood on Sunday, April 24.

If you’re able to help out with a cleanup or if you would like to find out more details about your local event, please contact your community association.

For more information on Community Cleanups, please visit calgary.ca/cleanup.