If your garbage wasn't picked up this week and you found an orange notice attached to it, it's a reminder by the City of Airdrie that your bag wasn't in the right place.
 
"The garbage does need to be placed on the street, near the curb, and one meter from everything else," said Susan Grimm Team Leader for Waste & Recycling at the City of Airdrie. "It should never be placed on private property, which is sidewalks or any portion of grass. This will help to ensure that our collectors can safely collect everyone's garbage."
 
Grimm stressed that the bylaw was not changed, only the enforcement of it and the enforcement started this week. 
 
"We did initially communicate this through social media: Facebook and Twitter, on our website, and through the newspapers in June and July of this year," she said. "Then we ran another reminder, just this past October, which included all of the above the social media and the newspapers. "
 
Starting next week, and only next week, residents will be able to put out their weekly garbage, plus the leftover garbage bag if it wasn't picked up this week. According to the city's website, "Those that received orange tags will be permitted to put out the tagged bag plus one additional bag for collection next week."
 
 "Our approach is always education before putting in a financial penalty. Our preference is to continue to do that," Grimm said. "I'm confident that residents of Airdrie are going to understand what we're trying to do. Hopefully, there'll be majority compliance and everybody will be happy moving forward."

 

Residents can also sign up for myAIRDRIE to receive regular reminders (and service interruption notifications) about garbage, recycling and organics collection.