St. John's has no plans to introduce organic waste collection any time soon, says mayor

The City of St. John's has no plans to extend its curbside pickup program to include organic waste, with the mayor saying they're waiting on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to step in with a strategy.

While the city does collect residential yard waste, it doesn't collect household food waste like fruit and vegetable peels.

"We're awaiting a regional or provincial waste management strategy in terms of composting, which we feel is going to be necessary before we can move forward," Mayor Danny Breen told CBC News.

LISTEN | Mayor Danny Breen touts the city's compost program, where people can collect free compost on Saturdays in October:

St John's Morning Show6:37The city of St. Johns is giving away fresh compost made from leaves and other residential yard waste

Every Saturday in October, the City of St. Johns is giving away fresh compost. The Morning Show's Jonny Hodder met with Mayor Danny Breen at the compost pile in the city's landfill..

Expanding curbside pickup to include organic waste has been on the city's radar for years. Back in 2007, the city said collecting organic waste from residents was part of its waste diversion plan, but a decade later, those plans were put on hold.

In 2017, Coun. Sandy Hickman said finances were a barrier.

"The problem is that the end product is not marketable. The end product would then be dumped in the landfill," Hickman said at the time.

Breen said the delay is still due to costs and challenges with developing the necessary infrastructure for a regular residentialorganic waste collection.

"In the meantime, we're providing opportunities for residents to compost by obtaining the machines from the city. Providing some support in how to do that and how to properly process compost on your property," he said.

He also touted an ongoing program throughout October where people can head to the Robin Hood Bay landfill to get compost for free on Saturdays, which is generated through its yard waste curbside pickup program and pumpkins donated from the annual pumpkin walk.

The Resilient St. John's plan also encourages residential composting and provides compositing at community gardens, he added.

However, while Breen said an organic waste program would require cooperating with the province, he hasn't heard of any developments in the "last number of years."

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Lisa Dempsterrefused an interview.

In a statement that did not address whether a provincial organic waste program was in development, spokesperson SherriBreensaid the department works with the Multi-Materials Stewardship Board to encourage people to compost organic waste.

"We oversee organic waste management for a number of commercial/industrial producers (i.e. on-site composting at a commercial facility)," she wrote.

Eyeing the future of compost

Audrey Parnell, manager of circular economy withnon-profit Econext, said there are big business opportunities to tap into organic waste as opposed to letting it sit in landfills, decompose and release emissions.

She pointed to P.E.I. and Nova Scotia, both of which haveimplementingorganic waste bans in landfills.

"As a result, they have large-scale composters that are able to handle the waste," Parnell said.

Household compost binsdon't work for everyone because they require outdoor space to store them and a garden to put the generatedcompostto use.

She said that's why it's important to have industrial compost sites, adding that they require funding and then getting people to use them.

"It requires a lot of behavioural changes when it comes to how we as people choose to dispose of organic waste. But it is possible," said Parnell.

In Nova Scotia's case, she said different levels of government and private enterprises came together to make it possible to generate revenue from waste-related businesses.

Barriers of implementinga widespread compost program could be figuring out where it should be based, how to regulate it and ensuring compost remains free of plastic and metals.

"Being able to have enough compost and enough waste that you could successfully run a profitable business is also very challenging," she said.

Edmontonis looking at ways to use organic waste to generate energy by developing power plants that use organic waste in partnership with private companies, she added, noting several pots of federal and provincial money that could be accessed for organic energy pilot projects and waste diversion efforts.

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