It’s almost time to get out the lawn mowers, chainsaws, mops and buckets to spring clean the house and beautify the yard.
Spring cleaning is generally a basic task but is easier and more efficient when knowing how to take advantage of the services available in Ponoka and doing your part to accommodate those services.
The Town of Ponoka offers a location to bring your recyclables. After ridding the house of old jars, cans and other garbage while spring cleaning, they can be brought to the recycling on 46th Ave and 50th St. adjacent to Hamilton’s Skate Park.
“Recycling is voluntary,” said Stan Baliant, director of property of services for the Town of Ponoka. “The town provides a place for people to bring their recycling any time they want.”
The recycling centre is open 24 hours a day and offers places to bring cardboard, mixed paper, mixed coloured number five plastic, tin cans, clear glass, plastic milk jugs and milk cartons.
When bringing recyclables to the recycling centre make sure that cardboard is flattened and milk jugs rinsed, tops removed and flattened. Tin cans should be flattened, rinsed and their labels should be removed as well. Clear glass bottles and jars should also be clean and with no lids.
Items such as vehicle batteries can be taken to the UFA farm store and used oil can be brought to the Bottle Depot. Plastic grocery bags can be dropped off at Hamilton’s IGA and old electronics can be brought to the Ponoka County Transfer Station on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Baliant believes that residents of Ponoka are taking advantage of the recycling and encourages more people to jump on board.
“There are a fair amount of people in Ponoka that are recycling,” he said. “It’s nice to see that.”
The Town of Ponoka also offers a spring cleanup program for residents of Ponoka. The cleanup is done twice a year in the spring and fall and this spring’s cleanup is quickly approaching.
“We run a spring cleanup program in town the end of May,” said Baliant. “The public works crews pick up yard waste, leaves, branches and grass at no cost to the taxpayer.”
Although the pickup is a service free of charge Baliant asks that residents be considerate while bringing their waste to the curbside.
“We prefer that the yard waste is not bagged but instead put in a pile next to where the regular garbage is put out,” he said.
Branches from trees or bushes should also be cut to a maximum size of one and a half meters long rather than having massive branches.
If preferred residents can also take grass, leaves, branches and other yard wastes and bring them to a waste transfer station which is free of charge as well.
Additional information regarding waste transfer and recycling can be obtained by calling 1-800-463-6326 and recycling pamphlets can be picked up at the Town office.