Food Waste Collection Pilot Program

• Adding food waste to the leaf and yard waste composting process supplies additional nutrients for a more potent and robust compost product produced by the City. 

• Diverting organic waste from the landfill will increase the amount of landfill space for the future. This will save taxpayer dollars now by extending the timeline for the construction of a new landfill – currently calculated at a whopping 65-90 Million dollars! 

• When organic matter breaks down in a landfill, where it is compacted and starved of oxygen, it creates harmful gases such as methane which we all know has a detrimental effect on the environment. Composting food waste adds oxygen to the decomposition process, significantly reducing the amount of greenhouse gas produced.  

Compost Giveaway

• Farmers often refer to compost as “black gold” since it is packed full of nutrients that the soil needs to produce healthy plants and crops. 

• Topping up your soil with nutrient-rich compost reduces the amount of fertilizer and pesticides needed and improves soil structure. 

• Compost also increases the soil’s ability to retain water, in turn reducing the amount of watering required. 

This is the bucket

• A kitchen bucket was delivered to every eligible household in the pilot routes to ensure that everyone was provided with a way to be able to participate. 

• We know that not everyone has access to ice cream pails or another type of container and want to encourage participation in the program wherever possible. 

• The kitchen bucket is the most common sized container used by other cities with organics collection so that it can be stored in a cupboard or other convenient location in your kitchen. 

• The kitchen bucket also gave us an additional way to provide participants with information about the acceptable items and a QR code that links to the Food Waste Collection Pilot Program webpage. 

• Just don’t forget to empty the contents of the kitchen bucket into your green cart and bring your bucket back into the kitchen to refill again! 

What can be composted depends on the rate at which it breaks down, the type of material and also whether our particular compost process can efficiently turn it into compost. 

For example, the ability to compost plastic bags labelled as biodegradable or compostable varies between different brands meaning each type or brand of bag breaks down at a different rate. So, even though a bag is labelled as biodegradable, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will break down fast enough for the composting process that we use. Since they don’t break down, plastic bags produce litter during the composting screening process, which is a nuisance and can be costly to clean up. 

• Organics collection is far more efficient than using a garburator since more items can be properly disposed of and it’s more environmentally friendly. 

• Meats, bones, egg shells, paper towel and soiled paper can be disposed of in an organics collection program, whereas these items definitely should not be sent through a garburator. You risk damaging the garburator or plumbing, resulting in unwanted costs or replacements. 

• Disposing of fats, oils, grease, and meat products along with other food products down the drain can result in unwanted sewer blockages and sewer backup which can pose potential health risks and be quite costly to clean up. 

• Using a garburator consumes a significant amount of water which is certainly an unwise use of water and can impact the cost of your utility bill.