Major changes to the city's garbage and compost collection are now being delivered. Homes will receive new large carts for the collection along with kitchen compost containers over the next month.

"It's been very, very long in the planning stages," Mayor Bev Buckway said during a press conference Friday morning at the Municipal Services Building to launch the service.

Rather than leaving garbage bags of waste and compost for the city to collect, residents will put their waste in either cart for collection on the regular pick-up schedule.

The kitchen containers allow for a space in the home where compost can be collected before being dumped in the compost cart. Since the containers will be dropped off to homes neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood, it's expected all properties receiving curbside collection will have their carts by May, Buckway said.

In the same month, the city will also be getting new garbage trucks with lifters to dump the waste into the truck.

"These new trucks that we will have will mean that our operators will no longer have to handle the garbage bags by hand, so there won't be any sharp objects in the bag that we'll have to worry about, and also they won't have to lift the bags and the garbage cans," the mayor said.

The city-wide changes come after a year-long pilot project in Porter Creek. The neighbourhood saw a 67-per-cent reduction in garbage bag use, a 51-per-cent reduction in the use of compost bags, a jump of 35 per cent of participants in composting and a 39-per-cent drop in the number of residents visiting the landfill.

"Based on the results of that Porter Creek trial, the city is very optimistic that we will see significant improvements in waste management from a sustainability perspective," the mayor said as she stood next to a green composting cart and a grey garbage cart.

Along with the Porter Creek program, council members and city staff also tried out the carts to get a sense of how the system will work.

"Now that I've had one, I wouldn't want to not have one," Buckway said of the carts, adding she's had many people on her street asking when theirs will arrive.

At Buckway's house is a container for dry garbage like packaging, another for compost and a third for recycling, she said.

"So I just go out - it takes me less than a minute to go out , take that little container, dump it in - I don't use any plastic bags anymore - just put everything in the big cart and the truck comes and away it goes," Buckway said.

The city spent $837,510 on the 12,000 carts and $824,865 on the new trucks, though, as Buckway was quick to note, the money came from the federal gas tax revenue program.

The changes will also mean a smaller carbon footprint because the larger trucks are expected to make fewer trips to the landfill. The trucks are also more fuel-efficient than the older models the city currently has.

It's also expected the changes will mean fewer plastic bags ending up in the landfill.

The larger trucks - at 27 cubic yards rather than the current 15 - will also mean changes to where some residents put out their garbage for pick-up.

Rather than using the back alleys as is the case for some, residents will now be required to put their carts in front of their homes for pick-up, where the trucks will have more room to get through.

As for their old garbage containers, Buckway is encouraging residents to find ways to use them for things like storing garden supplies or dog food.