Compostable organic materials makes up over 40 per cent of our current residential waste stream.

How to Manage Food Waste At Home

Many municipalities offer hands-on instruction to help residents learn the ins-and-outs of composting. Contact your municipality for information.

Composting quick tips:

1. Compost vegetable scraps, spent flowers, excess grass clippings that cannot be grass-cycled, egg shells, and coffee grounds. 
2. Add thin layers of carbon rich brown material like shredded newsprint, dry leaves each time you add kitchen scraps
3. Keep a dry (old garbage bin with a lid) supply of leaves beside you compost bin to supply the brown material layers.
4. Chop up material- thumb sized is best
5. Keep a lid on it, and keep it moist but not wet
6. Let it breath by churning the pile
7. DO NOT add fish, meat, or oil

If you live in a house you can have a composter in your back garden. If you live in an apartment it can be challenging to compost. Some buildings have group composting in a garden site. You might set up a worm bin to manage your kitchen scraps.

In some locations, an organic waste digester may be an alternative or an addition to a backyard composter. Similar to composting, digestion involves the decay of organic materials through the presence of micro-organisms from soil. Check with your municipality to see if they recommend or offer home-based food waste digesters in your area.

Yard Trimmings

Yard trimmings, such as branches, leaves, grass clippings and large roots from your garden are banned from the garbage. Larger items can be bundled for curb side pick up, OR put in a bin marked for yard waste pick up OR taken to a yard waste depot. Each city has a different yard waste program so check with municipality.