Regina residents will be adding green to their collection of blue and brown carts, as the City of Regina approved a city-wide curbside food and yard waste service n Wednesday.

The service comes after a ‘successful’ pilot program, which saw 2,800 residents take part from September 2020 to September 2021.

The City is planning on implementing the program in the fall of 2023.

Residents can expect to be using a 240-litre green cart (two-thirds the size of the blue cart) to collect all food scraps, including meat, bones, dairy and greases, along with yard waste and soiled paper (paper towel, cardboard and tissues).

The green carts will be collected weekly between April and October and bi-weekly between November and March.

By collecting the food and yard waste, the green carts will divert roughly 50 per cent of the waste currently going into the garbage in Regina.

Kurtis Doney, director of water, waste and environment with the City of Regina, said that takes the them one step closer to achieving a goal.

“The implementation of the food and yard waste program will move the City closer to diverting 65 per cent of residential waste from the landfill,” he said. “Through the pilot program, we’ve seen residential diversion go from about 20 percent to over 50 per cent, so we are very excited to bring that to the city.”

The volume of waste disposed at the landfill is expected to decrease by approximately 24,000 tonnes per year, eliminating 10,820 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and extending the life of the City’s landfill.

City administration estimates that the food and yard waste service is expected to have a net cost of $6 million a year.

In addition to the ongoing annual cost, the administration submitted a budget request of $5.5 million through the 2022 budget to purchase green carts. Administration will also include a request for a budget of $700,000 in the 2023 budget for the cost for green cart deployment.