Curbside compost pickup in Metro Vancouver

• By
• Diane Selkirk

Image by Flickr / Jared Tarbell

Region-wide composting in the Vancouver area will save money and waste—here’s how to participate

I have to admit it: I’m a composting junkie. I grew up composting. We had a big heap out back, and I had this weird love for spreading the resulting loamy black soil over the tomato patch.

When I moved into my first apartment I had the hardest time throwing away my food waste. But when a friend gave me a glass jar full of red wigglers and instructions for a worm bin I felt like I had been given a huge gift.

Over the years, I made a lot of visitors say hello to my worms (and adopted more than a few out to new homes). The worms were sort of like my pets, I even gave them extra corn cobs—believing the round shape would be fun for them to play on.

When I moved to a condo that had a city compost bin in the yard, I was thrilled. We kept our kitchen scraps in a container on the counter and every few days I would make the trek down to the composter. I was always fascinated by the way all that organic matter was transformed—first into a stinky goo, then into nutrient-rich soil.

Metro Vancouver trials curbside compost pickup

I’m the first to understand that not everyone gets excited by compost the same way I do. I get that not everyone wants to watch their broccoli make the transition from bright green stems to dark moist soil. This is why the fact that Metro Vancouver is going to be starting region-wide composting is so exciting.

Obviously it’s great that all those nutrients won’t go to waste while stewing in a landfill burping out methane. But the even better is the fact that by providing curbside pickup the city will save money and divert the estimated 190,000 tonnes of food that is thrown in the garbage each year.

Because the city program is using a commercial composting facility that uses a lot more heat than a home compost can generate, it’s able to process a lot of waste (including a bunch of stuff that we can’t put in our home compost) into valuable soil.

Several neighbourhoods have already started a composting pilot program, but the rest of us will have to wait until fall 2010. [UPDATE: Curbside collection of food scraps for residential homes who currently receive city recycling, yard trimmings and garbage collection services began on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 2010.]

While you wait, here’s the list of all the things that won’t be going in the garbage anymore. You may even want to start practicing with a backyard composting bin—but watch out, it’s addictive.

(Image: via the City of Vancouver composting guide)

List of acceptable composting materials for curbside pick-up:

• Bread, toast, cereal, baked goods & pizza
• Cake, cookies, pie, muffins & candies
• Coffee grounds & filters, teabags
• Dairy products, cheese & yogurt (no containers)
• Eggs & egg shells
• Fruit
• Meat, fish & shellfish (including bones)
• Nuts & nutshells
• Pasta, couscous, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, flour & grains
• Vegetables, corn cobs & husks, pumpkins & salads
• Sauces, mayonnaise, salad dressing, syrups, peanut butter, jams & jellies (no containers)
• Fats & oils, lard, gravy, butter & margarine (no containers)
• Shredded paper
• Soiled paper towels, paper napkins, facial tissues, paper towel rolls & toilet paper rolls
• Soiled paper food packaging, cardboard egg cartons, pizza liners, paper plates, paper towels, and napkins
• Houseplants
• Popsicle sticks, toothpicks, wood chips, sawdust & cold wood ashes (in paper bags)
• Leaves and grass clippings
• Weeds, plants, flowers and pumpkins
• Small branches and prunings

(Image: via the City of Vancouver composting guide)

Non-compostable items not to be set out curbside:

• Plastic bags & wrap, Styrofoam
• Plastic containers and cutlery
• Foil wrap, pouches and pie plates
• Metal cans or glass jars
• Cereal and cracker box liners
• Chip and cookie bags
• Pet food bags and other lined bags
• Make-up remover pads, cotton swabs and balls
• Butter wrappers (foil)
• Dental floss, rubber bands
• Soiled diapers, baby wipes
• Cigarettes and butts
• Vacuum contents and bags
• Pet feces or litter

Guidelines for backyard composting

These same guidelines can be applied to the home composter, especially if that compost is to be used for growing edible plants. Just keep in mind, as City Farmer’s Michael Levenston points out, “Whatever we put in the compost will end up on our plate.”