The end of a trashy era in Winnipeg was officially marked on Friday as the final manual garbage collection day took place in the city.

Starting next week, the new city-wide recycling and garbage collection service begins.

Darryl Drohomerski, the city's manager of solid waste services, met with media for one more explanation on the new service to make sure Winnipeggers are ready to roll with the new carts.

Every household should have now received:

• One 240-litre grey garbage cart (holds about the equivalent of three standard-size garbage bags).
• One 240-litre blue recycling cart (holds about the equivalent of four-standard size blue boxes).
• Two complimentary compostable yard waste bags as a sample of the type of paper bag accepted in the program.
• A user guide with full program details.
• A calendar highlighting all the garbage, recycling and yard waste collection days until the end of 2013.

Recycling and garbage carts will be emptied every week of the year and yard waste will be collected once every two weeks from April to November, on the same day of the week that recycling and garbage carts are emptied.

The new services began on August 1, 2012, for about 24,000 residential properties formerly served by large metal shared community garbage bins (AutoBins).

The remaining 165,000 households are now being brought on board.