The yard waste pickup program begins next week in Portage la Prairie, which means there are no more excuses; it's time to start your spring cleaning! Portage la Prairie's Public Works manager Brian Taylor explains how the program works.

"Your yard waste can go out to the curb on the same day as your garbage pickup and the city's contractor will come by and pick up your bags. They need to be in clear plastic bags or in brown, paper compostable bags."

Taylor says outlines some of the restrictions for the bags themselves.

"Make sure your yard waste is consisting of only leaves, grass, and garden waste and nothing else. Make sure there's no tree branches, no dog waste or anything anything like that. They will only pick up bags that are 18kg or approximately 40 lbs, because anything over that may rip the bags so they'll be left behind."

He explains why this composting program is beneficial to Portage.

"By providing this program, we're able to do a composting program over on the west side of town. Once the yard waste that we pick up has actually matured and composted it's free for our tax payers to gather and use in their own gardens. When you do pick up compost, anything you want to take must be taken by shovel, so whether you have a pickup truck or a trailer, as long as you're shovelling it on it's yours to take."

Taylor says the program will run for the next 4 weeks, and it will start up again in the fall for another 6 weeks.