City of Powell River Council voted in favour of a residential curbside organics collection program for all houses, starting in March of 2024, at a meeting on December 7.
In a media release on December 28, mayor Ron Woznow stated that this program will allow residents to help achieve the city’s environmental goals.
“We are pleased to announce the March 2024 roll-out of city-wide organics collection," stated Woznow. "By separating their organics waste so it is composted rather than put in a landfill, [residents] will reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with their waste."
Organics collection has been a successful pilot program involving 410 households since 2017, according to the release. When introduced in the new year, the service will be available to all private residences in Powell River through the provision of a 120-litre green compost cart. Collection will not be available for apartment complexes or commercial entities, however, organics drop-off will still be accepted at Town Centre Recycling Depot and Sunshine Disposal and Recycling.
Up to 42 per cent of Powell River’s waste is organic material that can be recycled into compost, the release stated. Most of the materials that will be accepted for curbside collection are from the kitchen, including meat and bones, fish, shellfish, pasta and grains, plate scrapings, dairy products, eggs and eggshells, fruit and vegetables, food-soiled paper and cardboard, paper coffee filters, coffee grounds, paper tea bags and wooden utensils. The rest of the cart can be filled with yard waste.
Residential organics will be picked up weekly beginning in March. Garbage and recycling collection will move to biweekly in April 2024. As with garbage and recycling collection, residents will be asked to have their organics carts at the curb by 7:30 am and not the night before. The city will be releasing more details early in 2024.
Diverting waste from garbage carts in a sustainable way will result in lowering solid waste volumes for transport to landfill in Washington State, according to the release, as organics will be trucked to Salish Soils in Sechelt for composting.
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