Curbside kitchen waste collection eyed

Curbside green waste pickup for the city would cost $9M to launch

The city could soon be starting a curbside pickup program for kitchen organics.

Councillors will hear a proposal from staff about it at a meeting at City Hall on Monday night.

The idea is to start a program, in partnership with Triland Excavation and Hauling on Keene Rd., to process the city’s kitchen organics as well as leaf and yard waste.

The city would have to buy green bins and collection trucks, and also run an advertising campaign to get the program started. All this would be expected to cost $9 million.

But a city staff report states that the province is handing out grants for environmental programs, funded from the proceeds of its cap-and-trade program.

The project could be eligible to receive 50 per cent of the money it needs to get started and the rest is already in the city’s budget.

That’s because council had already planned to set aside money, for the next two years, to build a municipally owned leaf and yard waste facility in Peterborough (yard waste currently gets shipped to Belleville, for processing).

If this project goes forward, the city wouldn’t need to build that new facility - and it would also get a kitchen organics processing service, as a bonus.

A city staff report recommends that council deal with the firm Triland on Keene Rd., one of nine firms that responded when the city was looking for a company interested in doing business.

Triland was the only firm of the nine that met certain criteria set out by the city: it is located within 25 kilometres, for example, and it can deal with both organics and yard waste.

The city staff report states that having a kitchen organic pickup program will reduce waste going into the Bensfort landfill by 17 per cent.

It also states that the province is planning to prohibit kitchen organics from going into landfill sites, starting in March 2022.

The proposal will be discussed by city councillors Monday night at City Hall. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.

NOTE: See more city council coverage on Pages A1, A3 and A6.