City inches closer to organic waste pilot program

Some Winnipeggers may soon be able to separate out organic waste such as fruit peels, coffee grounds and animal bones, and leave it curbside for pickup as part of a compost waste pilot program.

The city council committee that oversees waste collection voted in favour of a five-year waste management strategy Wednesday that includes an organic waste pilot program to begin in 2020.

The plan still needs final approval from the mayor's executive policy committee and council.

For Coun. Cindy Gilroy — who chairs the city's standing policy committee on water and waste, riverbank management and the environment — Wednesday's vote was a victory.

"We are the last major city in Canada not to have an organics program," said the Daniel McIntyre councillor. "I really want to see this move forward."

The only member of the committee who voted against the plan, Coun. Kevin Klein (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), said he needs more details about the program before supporting it, including details about any extra fees residents could face.

"We're looking at everything from a very high level and we're not digging into the detail," said Klein. 

As part of the five-year strategy, the city would examine raising waste disposal fees, including on multi-family dwellings, to pay for an organic waste treatment plant.

A pilot program would allow Winnipeg to test out public preferences for the range of materials collected (some cities collect a range of waste, including diapers and menstrual products), and how well different container types fare in Winnipeg's cold weather, among other things.

Winnipeg's public service conducted a cross-jurisdictional analysis of waste collection as part of the five-year strategy.

It found not only that Winnipeg was the largest municipality without a green bin program, but that the city will not meet its own emissions and waste management targets unless the curbside organics program is implemented.

Organic waste is one of the worst emitters of methane at landfills.

According to the five-year strategy, the earliest possible date Winnipeg could have a city-wide organic waste program is 2026.