Blue cart recycling
Spring tips
When spring cleaning around the house, find the right place for your unwanted items that don’t belong in the Blue Cart.
- Gently used toys, small furniture and pots and pans: Donate to a local charity. Small broken household items go in your black cart.
- Old paint and cleaning chemicals: Take to a designated fire station or City landfill for safe disposal. Visit calgary.ca/hhw to view locations.
- Old clothes, shoes and linens: Donate useable clothes to a local charity or take to The City’s textiles recycling program. Check out the list of locations.
- Old electronics: Take your old and broken gadgets to an electronics drop-off for proper recycling. Check out the list of locations at calgary.ca/electronics.
- Fridge and pantry cleanup: Remove food from packaging and put food in your green cart for composting.
What can go in your Blue Cart
Find your pickup schedule
Print a calendar
- Type your address in the search box
- Select Get a calendar
- You can print a calendar; or
- Add an online calendar
Sign up for free reminders
- Type your address in search box
- Select Get a reminder
- Chose type of notice
- Add your contact details
Download the Calgary Garbage Day app
Never miss a collection day by downloading the Calgary Garbage Day app onto your mobile device.
Using your Blue Cart
Customer self-service
Request cart for a new home
Report a missing or damaged cart
For more details, see Replacing Your Cart.
About Blue Cart Program
Who receives a cart?
We provide blue carts to single family homes up to four units, as long as they are not part of an apartment or condominium.
Monthly Rate | 2024 |
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Blue Cart Fee ($ per 30 days) |
$9.16 |
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Your monthly cart program fees are not a "per-collection" fee but cover all the components of the residential cart programs, including providing carts to Calgarians, pickup from your home, sorting and processing of material as well as education and program support.
To learn more, visit Residential Waste Rates.
How recycling works
Through our Blue Cart program and community recycling depots, we've recycled more than 700 million kilograms over the last 11 years.
When your items are picked up from your blue cart, they go to a recycling sorting facility. People and machines sort all the mixed recyclables into different types of materials, bale them and ship them to markets where they will be made into new products.
In 2017, some items were impacted by the changes in the Chinese recycling sector and put into storage. In 2018, new manufacturers were found in other markets to accept recyclables as well as to clear out the backlog of stored items from 2017.
Other disposal options
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Take your residential waste to one of three landfill sites.
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Find a community recycling bin location near you.
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Recycle your old and unused electronics for free.
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Dispose of household hazardous waste at our drop-off locations.