Coming to a Curb Near You!
Community Rollout 2023: What's Happening?
In mid to late 2023, curbside residential organic waste collection will be implemented for all single- and multi-family households in the City of Kamloops that receive curbside cart collection. If you have a set of garbage and recycling carts that are collected by City trucks, your household is included.
Read the FAQs section on this web page and start getting familiar with what can and can't go in the organics cart.
Sign up on this web page to receive project updates and once the program starts, you'll periodically receive program updates, tips, and resources.
Timeline:
In July and August, organics carts will be delivered to all 27,000 households on curbside collection routes.
The week of August 21, city-wide curbside organic waste collection will begin. Organics will be collected weekly, and garbage and recycling will shift to biweekly collection. See an example of the new collection schedule format below, and find downloadable 2023/2024 revised collection schedules (effective August 21, 2023) on the Collection Services web page or in the Document Library on this web page. The new collection schedule will also be included with the organics cart delivery.
Curbside Collection Format
As organics collection begins, collection schedules for garbage and recycling will be changing. Garbage and recycling will be collected on an alternating biweekly basis and organics will be collected weekly (except from December 1 to February 28/29, when organics will be collected biweekly). Updated collection schedules will be included with the organics cart delivery, and are available on the Collection Services web page.
Data from the pilot program showed that a majority of households were not significantly impacted by a shift to biweekly garbage or recycling (by the end of the pilot program, 79% of respondents said biweekly garbage had an insignificant impact, no impact, or only a moderate impact; 78% of respondents said the same for biweekly recycling). Read more pilot program survey highlights.
As your household adapts to the new collection format, we encourage you to monitor your household's solid waste levels for a while before considering it necessary to change the size of (or get an additional) garbage or recycling carts (fees may apply). It is recommended to wait three months after organics collection begins before calling the Civic Operations team to discuss your options.
Below is an example of what collection will look like:
Please continue to explore this web page and read the FAQs section to learn more about the curbside organic waste collection project.
Background
In December 2020, Council authorized staff to move ahead with a three-phased approach to developing a residential organics collection program. The project is now entering Phase 3 - city-wide curbside residential organic waste collection.
What is Organic Waste?
Organic waste can broadly be thought of as anything that used to be alive. It refers primarily to food waste and food-soiled paper and can also include household plants/flowers and some yard waste. Kitchen food scraps include cooked food (leftovers) or unused or spoiled grains, dairy, produce, and meat. Bones, egg/seafood shells, and small amounts of fat, grease, and oils are also organic waste. Food-soiled paper products are often compostable and are suitable for organic waste collection. These include paper napkins, paper towel, food-soiled newsprint, dirty pizza boxes, coffee grinds/filters and tea bags, as well as wooden chopsticks, popsicle sticks, and skewers.
Using the Organics Kitchen Bin and Cart - The Basics
All curbside collection households will each receive two bins—a small kitchen bin (approximately 7 litres in size) and a 120L curbside cart. The kitchen bin would typically be stored on a counter next to a sink, or underneath the sink. It has a lid that snaps shut to help keep any odour and fruit flies contained, and may be lined with newsprint or any paper-based lining for ease of emptying and cleanliness (learn why biodegradable or compostable plastic liners are no longer accepted in BC composting facilities). When the kitchen bin is full, the food waste is transferred to the curbside cart, which can be stored alongside your garbage and recycling carts.
Why is a Residential Curbside Organic Waste Program Important?
- To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Organic waste buried in a landfill generates methane-a greenhouse gas-which is 26 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Composting organic waste with controlled exposure to air, moisture, and heat produces carbon dioxide, a much less harmful greenhouse gas. A curbside organic waste collection program is estimated to reduce the community’s carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 9,500 tonnes per year (equivalent to removing about 2,000 passenger vehicles per year from local roads).
- To Help Residents Divert Waste From the Landfill
Recent waste audits show that only 22% of residential garbage is actually garbage. The rest is either compostable or recyclable (either in the blue bin or at recycling drop-off depots). That amounts to a lot of waste that can be kept out of our landfill. Outcomes of organic waste collection in Kamloops align with waste reduction goals outlined in the City’s Official Community Plan–KAMPLAN–and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District’s Solid Waste Management Plan, which aim to reduce waste to the landfill to 560 kg/person annually by 2023 (in 2019, the disposal rate was 750 kg/person annually). Recent (fall 2020) public engagement for the Community Climate Action Plan showed organic waste collection as one of the top three policy changes supported by residents.
