(CFJC Today/File photo).

By Aaron Schulze

Organic Waste

Kamloops receives $1.8 million grant to expand organic waste program

Dec 7, 2021 | 12:58 PM

KAMLOOPS — The City of Kamloops announced it’s received a $1.8 million grant from the CleanBC to support its expanded residential organics collection program starting in late 2023.

The city’s Curbside Organic Waste Collection Pilot Program is in Phase Two of a multi-year program that aims to reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfill and greenhouse gas emissions. Phase One included a feasibility study and waste audit that examined the program’s benefits, and Phase Three will expand to include 27,000 residential homes.

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According to the city’s data, 64 per cent of households in five pilot routes in Phase Two are setting out their organic carts each week, with the city collecting a daily average 2,300 kilograms of organic waste from Sept. 20 to Dec. 3.

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“We’ve had staff out monitoring, tracking, and documenting all three streams of waste—organics, garbage, and recycling,” Kamloops’ Solid Waste Reduction Coordinator Marcia Dick says. “The participation rates and the amount of organics collected so far is very encouraging, and as a result, that waste is being diverted from the garbage stream. Through comparison of garbage weights over last year on our pilot routes, garbage weights are down 41 per cent on average.”

City staff will prepare another report in spring 2022 that will include an update on all aspects of the curbside residential organic waste collection program.