Green bin woes

I was super excited when they brought the green bin program to Ottawa and couldn't wait to start using it.

I scoffed at the paper bags that people used in their bins... it was just a big garbage can, why bother with lining it. And it was fine... if a big gunky... all winter long.

And then, just like it was predicted, things started changing when we hit summer. And one word, a word that had a connotation that I think is even worse than their actuality, was my final straw with how I felt about the green bin.

The day Eric came inside to tell me the green bin was crawling with maggots was the day I started wanting to throw my "green bin-able" items back in the garbage. And despite Eric trying to clean the bin and trying to kill the maggots with salt, the day I opened the garage and found it full of hundreds of flies, I had a temper tantrum.

Not to mention the smell. Oh, the smell in the garage was unbearable.

Last week we decided to hire Bin Aces to come and clean the bin. I'd heard about them in a blog post months and months ago (possibly this one or this one ) and because our bin was SO DISGUSTING, we decided to spend the price to do it once. The alternative was getting inside the sludgy maggoting disgusting bin. I'd pay $15 to avoid that! The idea was that we were going to then put away the bin until the heat isn't so bad.

This morning I went outside and not only was our bin clean, it smelled GOOD! (my only small complaint was that the web site said they would be calling up to set up a time they would come and they never did that. Good thing I left the bin outside just in case.) I'm halfway tempted to actually try the bags and see how it goes instead of giving up entirely on the bin.

Some people suggest things like freezing the stuff until garbage day, but I really don't need that as an added task every week.

How are you dealing with the green bin? Are you using it? Are the maggots trying to take over your house too?