Regina’s Ralph Latta was surprised when he opened up his green bin to find some unwanted visitors wiggling around.
“We started to use our green bin last Monday (Aug. 28). When I opened it on Friday to put some more garden waste in it, it was literally crawling with maggots, which kind of shocked me,” said Latta. “I could imagine some people that would have opened it and probably literally passed out.”
Green bins were delivered to Regina neighbourhoods throughout August, and pickup services started Monday.
Latta had put some garden waste and food scraps into the bin and they sat there for about four days. Even though he had used the paper bags to put his kitchen scraps in, he was shocked that the green cart started to look like a science experiment gone wrong.
“We had noticed the flies around the yard — and I do have fly catchers around the yard — but since I took the bin away, the flies went away too,” he said.
A post-pilot survey was done by the City of Regina before the carts hit the curbs, and more than half of users reported no problems with the carts. Another resident said she was pleased with her green cart so far.
Latta was neutral when he first heard about the new green cart program. He didn’t have a need for a cart because he already composts, and most of his garden waste goes back into the dirt to help soften it up.
“I thought it might be kind of nice for some of the things that you can get rid of like the food scraps. It was kind of ironic (that) the same time we got our green bin, our garburator quit,” said Latta.
On Friday, when Latta discovered that the cart had become an ecosystem for maggots and a petri dish for mold, he said he just wanted the cart out of his yard.
Latta contacted the city about the situation and it provided him with a list of suggestions that could help avoid pests. Those included using the kitchen bag, and rinsing the bin each time it gets dumped.
He’ll probably keep the bin for bigger garden waste, but won’t be putting food scraps in it again.
“I don’t care whether I have it in the paper bag; I’m not taking that chance again. One of their suggestions was save all your food scraps in the fridge or freezer and just put them in the bin on garbage pickup day,” said Latta. “Come on, that’s just getting silly.”
The City of Regina has a company hired to build a composting facility in the RM of Edenwold, but construction has come to a halt after the backlash from the Pilot Butte community.
After seeing his own bin, Matta said he wouldn’t be happy if there was a compost facility near his home.
“What caught me was, ‘Boy, if I saw that and I lived in Pilot Butte, and they wanted to put the pickup point anywhere near my residence, if I got that many maggots in four days in one bin, what’s it going to be like where they put this stuff?’ ” said Latta.
The City of Regina is starting to receive feedback about the new green cart rollout and will give an update after it has a few days to analyze and gather feedback. In the meantime, the city has a list of frequently asked questions on food and yard waste before the update comes out.
To avoid pests, the city has recommended that people keep bins in a cool place to slow down the decomposition. It also suggests using biodegradable liners to absorb moisture, keeping the lid on tight, and sprinkling a small amount of baking soda on top of the bin to neutralize odours and deter flies.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been amended to correct one of the city’s suggestions on how to avoid pests.