Winnipeg compost pickup program has room to grow 1 week after start

Winnipeggers are starting to take advantage of a new way to dispose of their compost, says Compost Winnipeg, which began collecting household organic waste from 15 dropoff sites on Oct. 15.

In just over a week, it has collected 1,578 kilograms, according to Karrie Blackburn, the sales and customer service lead for Compost Winnipeg, a social enterprise run by the non-profit Green Action Centre.

That's equivalent to the amount of compost about 150 households would generate over a week, she said.

"We've had a lot of support come in, and people contacting us to acknowledge and appreciate the service," Blackburn told CBC News.

"Overall, we've been very pleased to see how ready for this service the community has been."

The city launched the dropoff service as an interim step toward a citywide curbside compost program, tentatively slated to start in 2030.

The dropoff sites include the city's three 4R Depots, along with community centres. 

People can drop off scraps of fruit, vegetables, meat, bones, dairy and paper packaging. Containers can be lined with newspaper, a paper bag, or a Biodegradable Products Institute-certified compostable bag.

So far, Winnipeggers have been following the guidance on what they can put in the compost, with minimal contamination, said Blackburn.

In one instance, Compost Winnipeg had to make an extra pickup at the Glenwood Community Centre after someone dropped off "like 50 pizza boxes," she said. 

"We can accept pizza boxes. We're just asking the community to cut them up or rip them up before adding them to the bins, just because there's a lot of empty space inside of pizza boxes."

So far, bins have been about half-full, so there is still room for more residents to start using the service, Blackburn said.

In a news release announcing the start of the program earlier this month, Mayor Scott Gillingham said for every tonne of food waste diverted from a landfill, two tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions are removed from the atmosphere.

A list of the pickup locations can be found on the City of Winnipeg website.