(File photo: CFJC Today).

By Stephanie Swensrude

ORGANIC WASTE COLLECTION

Composting pilot program diverted 43 per cent of waste from landfill

Jun 5, 2022 | 1:45 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops city council will receive a report Tuesday (June 7) on the curbside organic waste collection pilot program that began in September 2021. The composting pilot included 2500 homes across five neighbourhoods.

One metric the city tracked was the weight of garbage diverted from the landfill through composting. The average diversion on pilot routes was 43 per cent, “a significant reduction in total material collected as well as total garbage collected”.

The report says that an audit performed in December found that households participating in the pilot put out less garbage overall than the houses on control routes. Pilot routes set out 24 per cent less total waste (garbage + organics) and 74 per cent less garbage.

“A community-wide organics collection program could potentially divert approximately 6000 tonnes of organic waste from landfill each year, reducing the amount of waste going to the Mission Flats Landfill by 10 per cent and extending the life of the landfill by three years,” reads the report.

The report calls the pilot program informative. One key lesson they identify is the impact to residents transitioning from a weekly to alternating biweekly collection schedule — garbage and organics one week, recycling the next week. They say in the report that an adjustment period would be needed for those not aware of the new schedule.

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Most residents who participated in the pilot said in a survey that their experience with the organics program was excellent. Of the participants who had a fair or poor experience, the main concern was biweekly garbage collection.

The City plans to begin community-wide organics collection by September 2023.