I must admit, the first thing I did when I opened "My Cochrane Collection" was searched out the "Hungry Carts" game to test the game and my sorting knowledge.

While fun and educational, the game is just one small feature of the newly launched My Cochrane Collection tool, designed to give residents an easy way to keep track of waste, recycling and organics schedules online or on any connected mobile device. It also is designed to help answer those sorting questions most of us encounter.

Waste and Recycling manager Fabrizio Bertolo is excited to see the new tool released and believes it will be helpful for residents in many ways.

"We've been working on this for a while and we're so happy we are finally able to give this great tool for our residents to utilize."

Once you open the tool on your computer or download the app you can plug in your address and it will provide reminders of your collection dates by whatever method you chose, email, text or through the app itself. You can custom set the day and time you want to receive the reminder.

In addition, it will advise you of any unexpected problems for scheduled pickup days.

"If there is a problem with collection in a certain area it will send a message in the affected areas telling them the cart isn't being collected today but leave it out because it will be collected the next day," Bertolo explains. "So they have all the information right away about what happened with their cart and won't have to contact the town."

A little educational fun is offered with "Hungry Carts."

Built-in will be notices of special events, like the first of two free compost event on May 11 or the free shredding day in October.

"If you get a reminder for your the collection dates you also get a reminder for all our different events, so it will be handy for everybody."

There are other helpful sorting features, too, like "Where Does it Go?" 

"For items you have doubt with, it will tell you exactly what to do with them. This is going to be much easier because you don't have to to go through our leaflet in order to find the item, you just type it in and it tells you what to do with it."

"Hungry Carts" is a quick little play-and-learn game. You are given items to sort and at the end you receive a certificate that you can customize with your name and even print if you so wish. If you replay the game it randomly changes the items you're sorting.

"It's a fun way to learn about how to separate your waste," says Bertolo.

The town has been testing the program and has ironed out bugs along the way. Still, you're able to submit questions, report problems or provide general comments through the program.

"It's a new product so it would be great if people can give some feedback or tell us if something isn't working properly."