City of Winnipeg survey floats question of 2-week garbage collection with compost program

The City of Winnipeg wants to hear from residents about what they think of waste collection in the city, including whether they would accept biweekly garbage pickupif the city launches a curbside compost program.

The onlinesurvey, which is open until Nov. 30, asks how switching from the current weekly pickup schedule would impact residents.

"Many cities that have a weekly green cart program for food waste collect garbage every two weeks," the survey reads.

"Most of the 'smelly' waste can be placed in the green cart, reducing the need for weekly garbage collection."

The survey is part of the city's review of itsComprehensive Integrated Waste Management Strategy, approved by city council in 2011. It guides how the city collects, sortsand gets rid of garbage, and provides a roadmap for new programs and services that help fight climate change.

Winnipeg is one of the last large cities in Canada without a residential compost program. Last month, council approved a public service recommendation to move forward with a programwith an amendment to seek options for getting it up and running by 2026, rather than the initial target of 2030.

Mayor Scott Gillingham has said he supports a residential compost program, but he has concerns about the timeline and the proposed $96 annual fee for residents.

Water and waste committee chair Coun. Brian Mayessays biweekly collectionwould be cheaper.

"My sense is that the time has come to do this," he said in an interview Sunday.

"I think I could live with the once every two weeks. Maybe it's a little easier for me. These days my two sons are away at university, so there's there's less garbage being created by our household, but I think it'sa balancing act."

Options for other services

The survey also asks for feedback about how well the city's garbage collection services are operating, whichprograms people are aware of and use, and what people do when they have excess garbage.

In addition to a compost program, the survey asks what other services residents would like to seelikeclothing and fabrics pickup, hazardous waste collection, and renovation and demolition waste drop-off at 4R Depots.

It also asks whether residents would be interested in renting,sharing or borrowing items, such as clothes, electronics and kitchen appliances.

The city says survey results "will be shared for additional feedback in the next phase of public engagement," expected some time in 2024.

The city's waste collection contracts are set to expire in the next couple of years, Mayes said, so it's important to decide how it wants to do curbside compost before that happens.

"You don't want to say to bidders, 'Well, it might be every two weeks, might be every one week. We don't know,'" he said.

Diverting from garbage

Compost Winnipeg, a social enterprise of Green Action Centre, currently provides fee-based organic waste collection services for residential and commercial businesses.

"Once people really get their hands on composting, they'll realize that a lot of the waste that we throw out on a daily basis is compostable," said Compost Winnipeg's Karrie Blackburn.

"Through composting, we're able to put those nutrients back into the food system.When it ends up in landfills, we're not getting it back."

According to Blackburn, a citywide compost program wouldhave a significant impact on the methane emissions that come out of the landfills.

In Manitoba, up to 40 per cent of our waste is organic waste, consisting mainly of leaf and yard waste, food waste and wood waste, according to the provincial government.

It's been over a year since Cynthia Lazar, who lives onLamont Boulevard, registered with Compost Winnipeg.

"We were actually looking for a composting program and we were aware of Compost Winnipeg, and as soon as we heard that they had expanded to this neighbourhood, we jumped right on it because it is something really important to us," said Lazar.

Lazar added that it's been a smooth process so far. They have a small bin under their kitchen sink that's supplied by Compost Winnipeg.

"We throw our compostable items in there and put it out at the end of the driveway in the larger bin once a week."

Lazar says the bins are then picked up by the Compost Winnipeg team, just likegarbage or recycling pickup.

"It'sgreat to see how much we actually divert from the garbage to the compost."

On Nov.4, as part of Compost Winnipeg's third annual Pumpkin Drop, people dropped their jack-o'-lanterns off the second level of the Polo Park shopping centre parkade into the back of the collection truck for composting.

The event encourages is meant to raiseawareness about food waste and reduce the amount of organics going into the landfill, Blackburn said.

Winnipeggers smash their Halloween pumpkins to divert waste

12 months ago

Duration 1:57

People dropped their jack-o'-lanterns off the second level of the Polo Park shopping centre parkade as part of Compost Winnipeg's third annual Pumpkin Drop on Saturday.