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Recycling
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Food Recycling/ Composting
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Zero Waste Challenge

Food Recycling/ Composting 

About 40% of the average home’s garbage is food scraps. How can you make less?

Reduce
Shop carefully using meal plans and grocery lists. Buying only what you need, means less fruits and vegetables go rotten. Use recipes that call for cooked fruit and vegetables to use up ones that are still good.

Recycle
Food scraps can be composted.

Backyard composter: in some municipalities up to 60% of households use a backyard composter.

Worm bin: apartments, offices and gardens can house a worm bin. The famous red wriggler worms can munch through a lot of food scraps.

Curb-side collection: increasingly, municipalities are offering curb-side pick-up of food scraps. Check with your municipality for collection details.

 Compost Resources
Backyard Composting quick tips:
  1. Contact your municipality to purchase a compost bin.
  2. The number one way to improve your composting success it to keep dry, brown, carbon-rich layers near by. Collect bins of leaves in the fall.
  3. Alternate food scraps with layers of brown leaves.
  4. Keep a lid on your composter.
  5. Let the pile breath- stir it with a stick to let in air.
  6. DO NOT add fish, meat, or oil to a backyard composter.

Curb-side collection frequently asked questions:
NOTE: There are slight variations in every city’s program- check with your city.

Can I use plastic bags to line my kitchen container or yard waste bin?
No. Plastic or biodegradable plastic bags are not allowed in the food scraps recycling bin; the composting facility does not accept them. These bags contaminate and interrupt the composting process.
Do I need to use a liner with my kitchen container?
You don’t need to line your bin or kitchen container, but using a liner will reduce the effort needed to keep the container clean and odour free.. If you choose to make or use a liner you can use paper—not plastic--if you wish. Newspaper, paper bags and paper towels are acceptable to use. Please do not use plastic , not even compostable plastic products, as the composting facility doesn’t accept them.
How does food scraps collection work?
If your neighbourhood has curb-side food scraps collection, you can now put leftovers or spoiled food into your yard waste bin.

After your city picks up the contents of your bin, it goes to a regional composting facility where high-quality compost is made and sold to local landscapers and farmers.
How does this fit with backyard composting?
Home composting is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to dispose of food scraps, not to mention the ‘black gold’ compost you’ll get as a result. If you have a backyard composter, please continue to use it. You might use this new program for ‘other’ stuff like meat, bones, fish and bread.
What about animals getting into my bins?
You were already putting food scraps outside in your garbage, now you’re just putting them in a different bin. If you’ve had issues with animals getting into your bins, here are some tips to help prevent that:
  • keep the yard and food bin in your garage and put it out in the morning—not the night before 
  • wrap fish & meats with newspaper 
  • store scraps in the freezer until collection day

Here are links to the West Vancouver and City of Coquitlam Bear Aware resources.

Where can I get more information?
From your city. Check your city online resources for more information about food scraps recycling in your neighbourhood.
Why are cities picking up food scraps?
Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of organic material can be kept out of landfills each year with composting. This garbage produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is created as food breaks down in the landfill.

Metro Vancouver residents and businesses are working towards a target of achieving 70 per cent waste diversion by 2015 as part of the Zero Waste Challenge.

Meat and dairy are difficult to safely compost at home. Curbside collection can keep these items out of the landfill and allow those who don’t have space for a back yard composter to participate.

Commonly accepted/ not accepted food scraps
NOTE: There are slight variations in every city’s program- check with your city.  For example, Vancouver currently only accepts: uncooked fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and filters, teabags, and eggshells.
Accepted

Bread, toast, cereal, baked goods & pizza
Cake, cookies, pie, muffins & candies
Coffee grounds & filters, teabag
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
Not Accepted

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

Resources

Cities offering food scraps collection:

Composting Questions?
Call City Farmer’s Regional Compost Hotline
phone604-736-2250

 City Farmer
 UBC's Community Composter

Fast Facts

Composting
  • reduces greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the number of trucks going to the landfill.
  • reduces methane gas generated at the landfill sites for decomposition.
  • over 120,000 homes in the region compost.