Peterborough’s plan for compost collection by 2020 has been kicked to the curb due to the withdrawal of a grant by the province, but city officials aren’t completely trashing the idea.
“What happened with the new provincial government, the $7.5 million grant that we did achieve through the greenhouse gas challenge fund was withdrawn — it was part of the cap-and-trade cancellation program,” said Wayne Jackson, commissioner of Infrastructure and Planning Service for the City of Peterborough.
The grant was supposed to help pay for the city’s $15-million project to build a new organic waste collection site by 2020; a site that would compost both kitchen organic and yard waste. Yard waste currently is being picked up in Peterborough.
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“Now that we don’t have the grant, what we’re going to do is look at ways of maybe phasing it. Continue with the leaf and yard and then make sure what we build at the landfill can accept kitchen organics as we move along, so it’s really a matter of funding,” said Jackson.
GreenUP executive director Brianna Salmon says she’s saddened to hear of the delays in the plan but says there are other ways people can compost at home.
“We sell city-subsidized composters here at the GreenUP store so if you’re interested in getting a composter, you can actually come to the store and buy a composter. They’re very affordable,” said Salmon.
GreenUP offers composting resources to help people install them, keep them going year-round, and deal with any challenges including pests.
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In a backyard composter, you can compost fruits and vegetables but you can’t put in meat and dairy products, as they can cause odours and attract pests.
“You just need to mix it with we call it green and brown. So the stuff that’s coming from your kitchen we call it green waste and then the brown would be like yard waste and so you just need to layer in your composter the green in the brown and in a season, you should be able to produce some really, really nice soil that you can use in your gardens,” said Salmon.
The city of Peterborough is currently reviewing how they can combine leaf and yard waste with kitchen waste organics.
A report is expected by 2019, and after that, the city says the earliest to see an alternative program in place is by 2020 or 2021.