Organic Waste Collection Update After Six Weeks

It has been over 6 weeks since the Brown Bin Organic Waste Collection pilot began and so far it is a huge success. The participation rate began at 75% and has reached 85%. The tonnage has almost tripled since the first week and we are approaching the per capita level of collection of other communities like Toronto that have been collecting organic waste for years. After 6 weeks, we are diverting about 60% of the organic waste produced by the 500 pilot homes from going to landfill.
Here's a list of the amount of organic waste collected in Metric Tonnes: (1 MT = 1000kg = 2205 lbs)
Week 1 - Sept. 25 - 1.2 MT
Week 2 - Oct. 2 - 1.9 MT
Week 3 - Oct. 9 - 2.1 MT
Week 4 - Oct. 16 - 2.4 MT
Week 5 - Oct. 23 - 2.9 MT
Week 6 - Oct. 30 - 3.5 MT

My task for the last few weeks has been to ensure that the compostable bags are available at local stores in the Cote Saint-Luc area. The bags are now available at both IGA stores, Rona, and Pharmaprix in Cote Saint-Luc. They are also available at the Wal-Mart in NDG. The city is working with the local stores to have signage up that reminds people which bags can be used with the pilot program. Residents can purchase the bags at Cote Saint-Luc City Hall and Public Works offices during business hours. Residents can get a free pack of 6 large compostable bags for leaf collection provided by the city. They can trade their brown bin at no extra cost for one of two larger sizes (120L or 240L) or purchase a second brown bin ($16) or kitchen collector ($4) at the city's public works offices.

Some of the problems that we've experienced at first were that some residents used incorrect bags and some were putting recyclable items such as paper and plastic in the brown bin. Residents must use paper or compostable bags because regular plastic bags are not biodegradable and take 100s of years to break down. Residents should put their clean paper, cans, bottles, and recyclable plastics in the blue bin.

So far the coverage of the Brown Bin Program has been very good. Stories have appeared in The Gazette, on CTV, CBC, TQS, in The Chronicle, Suburban, La Presse, on CJAD, 940 News and INFO690. Oriana Familiar, CSL's Environment and Waste Technician, and I have done a few presentations on the program for various groups.

I've also been following the news in the paper of Montreal's plans to introduce organic waste collection over the next few years. I wonder how long it will take for Montreal to implement their plan and if they will ask Cote Saint-Luc about our experience with organic waste collection.

We are preparing a newsletter for residents in the Brown Bin Pilot Zone that will give them an update as to how it's going. That will be followed a few months later by a survey which will be used as a basis for expanding to the second phase of the program which will involve all the single-family homes in CSL, if funding is available. We are also planning on visiting some of the 10-15% of the residences that are not participating to find out why and figure out what we can do to help them.

If you have any questions about the program, you can visit the city's ecological website at http://www.ecocsl.org/ or you can reach me at serdelyi@cotesaintluc.org.