Residents of Invermere will soon receive new bins as the District gets ready for the launch of a new automated garbage and recycling collection program in the community.
The District of Invermere said the program will officially begin on October 4th, but new standardized bins will be distributed starting on September 21st.
“When it comes to garbage collection, there’s more than enough room for a person to put their weekly garbage into. Sometimes that can get heavy, and from a health and safety standpoint, we don’t want to be hurting anybody, and we want that to be fully automated,” said Mayor Allen Miller.
Each household currently using the waste collection service will be provided with one 120-litre waste bin and another 240-litre recycling bin. However, residents are asked not to put out the new bins until the week of October 4th.
In addition to garbage collection, bi-weekly recycling pickups will continue with a few changes.
“We all know how important recycling is, and up until now, we’ve just used plastic bags, which means we’re using a lot of plastic to collect recyclables,” said Miller. “With this system, there will be a container, you’ll put all of your recyclables in the container and it’ll be used over and over again.”
As new bins are distributed, residents will also receive instructions on what can and can’t be recycled through the regular collection service.
Miller said the new automated service will be beneficial for the community in a number of ways.
“I believe it’s the way to go for the future. It’s going to save a lot of backs, so for health and safety, it’s going to be better, for recycling it’s going to be better since we’re not chewing up more plastic and it’s going to be convenient,” explained Miller. “We’re enlarging our own transfer station, as well as making it as easy as possible for people to recycle here in town.”
When the program launches, the District said garbage and recycling will only be collected when the new bins are used.