Summer weekly green cart collection begins in Halifax

The summer green bin collection schedule is back in Halifax.

Weekly green cart collection is back in Halifax for the summer.

According to the Halifax Regional Municipality, residents can now leave their green carts for compost out for collection every week alongside regular collection day, as apposed to the usual bi-weekly service.

During the 2025-26 budget process, Halifax council approved for a shortened summer collection period, meaning weekly collection will end on Sept. 12 rather than through the whole month like previous years.

“The last couple years we’ve looked at trying to have some budget reductions, this year we decided to do a budget reduction of five weeks, three weeks in July and two weeks in September for a savings of $422,000. On the average tax bill that’s about $1.39 per household,” said District 2 Councillor David Hendsbee.

Hendsbee adds wildlife sightings, particularly bear sightings, have increased following the reduction of services.

“We’ll probably bring it back with longer service than it was because we had a lot of complaints this year not just of bears, but we also had instances of rodents and racoons and stuff, so it has become a wildlife nuisance,” he said.

Hendsbee also asks residents to take precautions to minimize the risk of rotting garbage attracting rodents.

Residents in some more wooded areas say they’ve also seen more bears in their areas.

“Usually in the spring months we’ve been seeing them on the weekly so we’ve just moved our green bin out of reach behind out fenced area so they weren’t coming around,” said resident Carissa Wilson.

“I think in my area, at least our adjacent neighbours, have locked down their green bin, but the bears will sometimes take them into the road regardless,” she added.

Updated collection schedules can be found on the Halifax website.

Bi-weekly collection will resume on Sept. 15.

With files from CTV’s Callum Smith.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page