Composting it Right – using proper bags for municipal pickup programs.

More and more municipalities are starting compost pick-up programs in order to reduce landfill use and costs. (30 – 40% of household garbage is organics) But for these programs to work, it is critical that we use the right containers for our kitchen waste.
In the Lower Mainland of BC, for instance, most municipalities deliver their food scraps and compostable yard waste to Fraser Richmond Soil & Fibre. This facility does not accept ANY kind of plastic bags for household compost – even the ones that say ‘compostable’ right on them. Why? Because it’s too hard to tell them from regular plastic bags. So the best solution is to use paper bags, newspaper or the new Bag to Earth cellulose-lined paper bags to get your food scraps to the yard trimmings cart. These are a great alternative if you want to avoid leaks under the sink in between pickups.
Or, you can skip the bag altogether and put your compost waste into a SureClose Food Scraps Container. The perforated top on this unit allows for enough air circulation to keep odours to a minimum, (I know it sounds strange, but it does work!) and the handle makes it easy to dump into the yard waste container.
So if you have a municipal program in your area, (like the City of Vancouver Food Scraps Collection Program) check their website and make sure you’re using the right bags. For some composting basics, check out this GreenDeal 101 blog.
Remember, the more efficient our green programs are, the better they work – for the whole planet.