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New app sends garbage day alerts to Nanaimo residents’ smartphones

Residents can also use Nanaimo Recycles app to report maintenance issues like potholes

If you’re having trouble remembering garbage day, a new app can help.

The City of Nanaimo has launched a free smartphone app, Nanaimo Recycles, that’ll send reminders before collection days, alert residents to any emergency preventing pick up, and allows people to report civic problems from illegal dumping to potholes.

Charlotte Davis, city manager of sanitation, recycling and public works administration, said the city wanted residents to never forget a garbage day again and to make it easy to sort waste. The mobile technology will cost $8,000 a year.

There’s also a hope the city can whittle down its recycling contamination rate, which is still more than Multi-Material B.C.’s three-per cent threshold. An audit last year of Nanaimo’s recycling showed showed contamination was at 14 per cent while recent numbers puts it at 10 per cent. MMBC has the ability to fine the city if contamination rates aren’t lower and items not supposed to be in curbside recycling bags can result in loads heading to the landfill.

The new app has features such as a Nanaimo recycling game and a tool for people to report parks and public works issues, like missed garbage collection, graffiti and illegal dumping, by snapping a photo, pinpointing the location on GPS and sending it all directly to the city’s public works department.

A search bar also allows people to type in an item to see how to prepare it and which bin or depot it goes to.

The city asks people put shredded paper, for example, in a clear plastic bag tied at the top, which is then placed inside their yellow recycling bag, but Davis said she also spends a lot of time telling people not to put plastic bags in their recycling, which is where it’s difficult to clarify and she hopes the app will help.

What gets her excited about the technology is the premise of it being in every residents’ pocket.

“In theory, if every resident downloads this, then I have a direct line to each resident,” she said, adding she can contact them with an alert an emergency situation like a storm incident to let people know their route will not be collected and when next to put out waste.

The city can also attach notes to weekly collection reminders, like about Reuse Rendezvous, an annual curbside recycling event.

The app is free from Google Play store and App Store, and features are available on the city website at www.nanaimo.ca.