Peterborough County continues to review potential countywide organics program

Options are being developed for a potential countywide organics diversion program for Peterborough County.

On Wednesday morning, Peterborough County council received a report from staff outlining some options for a potential countywide organics program and highlighting some current smaller programs in the various townships. It follows an organics waste study first conducted in 2021 to identify challenges and legislation and to review other municipal programs.

Kerri Snoddy, the county’s manager of waste management, notes that a 2021 independent study estimated more than 4,500 tonnes of source-separated organics (SSO) could be collected annually, with the potential for more depending on participation. The main goal is to help extend the life of the Peterborough County-City waste management landfill on Bensfort Road in the city.

However, she notes the 2021 study was not completed as it awaited information on the feasibility of processing the county’s organics at the new Peterborough processing facility slated to open this fall, located adjacent to the waste management landfill.

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Any organics currently collected in the county are delivered either to the Harper Road facility in Peterborough, which is slated to close, or to a facility in Belleville.

“(The Bensfort Road facility) was built with capacity to take on our organics if we did put a curbside collection program in place,” Snoddy said. “So once we sort of iron out all of our different options with our garbage upload study, we’ll bring a report to you with all options for an organics program and the pros and cons of each. So we can make a decision if that’s something you want to move forward with.”

Current organic projects in Peterborough County include:

• Underground containers (brand name Molok) at five transfer stations. Nineteen are installed throughout the county, collecting 140 tonnes of SSO annually.
• Cavan Monaghan Township operates a curbside organic waste collection program for the village of Millbrook, which began in November 2019, collecting 150 tonnes of SSO annually.
• A garbage-to-garden program where staff install composters and digesters for residents.
• A pilot curbside organics collection program with 800 households in the village of Bridgenorth in Selwyn Township since 2006, collecting 43 tonnes of SSO annually.
• FoodCycler pilot projects in Trent Lakes and the townships of Selwyn, Asphodel-Norwood and Havelock-Belmont-Methuen. Approximately 1,000 food cyclers have been distributed to date.

In March of this year, county council approved a further review of uploading some garbage services from the townships to a county level.

Snoddy says all options will be considered, factoring in that many rural residents don’t currently have curbside collection service.

“The downfall of a curbside program in the county is that there are residents who wouldn’t receive the service because not all residents currently have curbside collection,” she said. “We will be looking at other options as well.”

Otonabee-South Monaghan Township Mayor Joe Taylor inquired as to how many households would participate in a composting or organics program, noting many simply use their own land to discard organic waste.

“Most farms, I would suspect, feed the organics to their livestock or just dump it on their manure plain,” he said. “A lot of rural residents, like myself, have significant property so I never put organic waste in my garbage. But I have enough area to dump it and that’s what I do. So I’m sure that there is quite a number of folks that wouldn’t participate in this program, even if it was available.”

Snoddy was unable to provide an exact number of households offhand but noted that the 2021 study showed “some” respondents were “happy with composting.”

“You are always going to get people who will not participate,” Snoddy said. “There are incentives that you can use to get participation from those who may not be composting, such as the city is doing to collect garbage every two weeks. But I think the main goal is to divert that material from the landfill. So if there are people composting and would rather use another method, then a program in place, that’s still a positive.”

North Kawartha Township Mayor Carolyn Amyotte noted that the township’s next budget includes funding for a food cycler program.

“We’ll be township number five to be doing it,” she said. “We do have the Moloks here too. I’m a longtime composter. I’m excited about the countertop composters as well. I think there are the same concerns on the cost and who is taking it on.”

County Warden Bonnie Clark, also the OSM deputy mayor, called the organics program an “exciting initiative” with more details to come.

“Anything we can do to extend the life of landfills is very significant,” she said.

Snoddy says staff plan on bringing a more comprehensive report to council with all options for an organics program, timelines and a financial analysis for a council decision in the second or third quarter of 2024.

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