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WASTE REDUCTION

Public input sought on Kamloops compost collection program

Feb 10, 2021 | 5:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — The City of Kamloops continues to explore the possibility of a Curbside Organic Waste Collection program. Right now, city staff are engaging with the public, seeking input from the citizens of the city on how they’d like to see such a program rollout.

The city is in Phase One of introducing the program, which means engagement with citizens. Solid Waste Services Analyst Marcia Dyck says the city is using their Let’s Talk website to gather information, in order to find out what priorities Kamloops residents have for an organics pick-up program.

“We will be doing a survey of residents, and we want to understand everything from cart size choices. What important – to keep costs low or to provide more service,” Dick explains. “We want to understand people’s behaviours and attitudes towards it. Are they concerned about odours and wildlife? That kind of thing.”

Phase Two of the project would start in September with a pilot project in several Kamloops neighbourhoods. According to Dick, about 38 percent of household waste is organic. In a city, the size of Kamloops, which equates to around 6000 tonnes of organic material would be diverted from the city landfill.

“And that would result in a greenhouse gas reduction because when organics go into a landfill they create methane. Methane is very, very potent – it’s actually 26 times more potent than Carbon Dioxide. By removing that amount of organics, we would see our community’s carbon emissions drop by about 2800 tonnes. That’s [the equivalent of] 600 cars, per year.”

Implementation of the Organic Waste Curbside Collection program is slated for 2023.