3-bag sorting in southeast New Brunswick running smoothly

It's been almost a month since southeastern New Brunswick adopted a new garbage-sorting formula, and already there have been positive results.

"We're seeing a cleaner material come through the plant," said Roland LeBlanc, the director of solid waste for Southeast Eco360. "So instead of 50 per cent in the blue bag being recyclable, we're seeing 70 to 80 per cent now."

Albert and Westmorland counties started the program on Oct. 24. It uses three bags: blue for recyclables, green for organic waste and clear for everything else.

All things considered, LeBlanc said, he'd give the region an A grade.

• New garbage-sorting program in Moncton introduces 3rd bag 
• Southeastern New Brunswick one step closer to a 3-bag recycling program 
• Recycling expansion explored in southeastern communities

"We're seeing good participation, with 60 to 70 per cent participation at this point. It's getting better week after week," said LeBlanc.

That doesn't mean there haven't been a few bumps in the road. Gena Alderson, a waste diversion co-ordinator with Southeast Eco360, said people are still getting used to a few things.

Information Morning - Moncton9:44Three bag trash system

Roland LeBlanc is the director of solid waste for Southeast Eco360 Gena Alderson is waste diversion coordinator"A lot of people are still trying to get used to that biweekly, or every two weeks, collection schedule," said Alderson. "So that's probably the one thing we're trying to work on."

LeBlanc said hiccups are inevitable, so for now, if people put out the wrong bag, it will still be picked up.

"We know it takes time to transition. There were some people who had the wrong schedule, so we're trying to clear that up."

While apartments and businesses are not forced to take part in the new sorting rules, there has been considerable interest.

"We are seeing a lot of interest in apartments and businesses," said Alderson. "We're getting a lot of calls from landlords, or building owners who are interested in implementing the program."

The program has its own app, which has grown quite popular, to help people with their garbage-related questions.

"Downloads for the app are up [to] 8,000 now, so it's been great," said Alderson.