British Columbia city begins roll-out of organics collection carts

Pictured from left: Dennis Monestie of   Rehrig Pacific, Ed Walsh of Emterra   Environmental, Chilliwack Mayor Sharon   Gaetz and Rosedale residents Chloe,   Terisha and Maximus Mitchell.

Residents of Chilliwack, British Columbia’s 21,200 single-family and duplex homes are set to get a new organic waste collection service. Starting the week of May 1, 2017, residents will be able to put food waste, food-soiled paper and yard waste together in their new green carts for weekly collection.

Delivery of the green carts along with a 2-gallon or 8-liter “kitchen catcher” to households on the city’s curbside collection program began the first week of April and will continue Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. throughout April. The city is providing a compostable waste information package with each cart. Cart collection will begin May 1.

Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz, Emterra Environmental Vice President of Operations Ed Walsh and Rehrig Pacific Environmental Solutions Manager for Canada Dennis Monestier kicked off distribution of the carts and kitchen catchers by delivering a set to Terisha Mitchell and her children, Chloe and Maximus.

In 2016, the city awarded a seven-year contract to Emterra Environmental to collect garbage and recycling and also expanded the service to include residential compostable waste (yard waste, kitchen food scraps, and food-soiled paper) collection. The recycling collection service performed by Emterra is partially funded by RecycleBC (formerly Multi-Material British Columbia).

“The city of Chilliwack is pleased to enhance our curbside collection program with the addition of compostable waste collection and thanks the many residents that advocated for this service,” Gaetz says. “Through this new program, we will be able to divert even more waste from the landfill than recycling alone, leaving a better planet for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.”

The city selected Emterra Environmental, headquartered in Burlington, Ontario, as its partner in the program. Emterra will collect the organics carts on residents’ regular collection days starting the first week of May.

“Collecting and composting yard waste and kitchen food scraps will have an important impact on the diversion of waste from Chilliwack’s landfill,” Emterra’s Walsh says. “Compostable materials make up over 40 percent of our household garbage. Keeping them out of landfill not only saves space, it also avoids the production of methane gas, which is a powerful greenhouse gas that is over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Composting is good for the soil, good for the air and good for us,” he added.

The carts and kitchen catchers are supplied by Los Angeles-headquartered Rehrig Pacific, a company that has been manufacturing containers for recycling and yard waste and kitchen scraps for decades.

“Working closely with Emterra, we have taken into consideration all factors in the development of our solution: the need of efficiency for the collector, the ease of use for the resident and the increase in participation for the city,” says Monestier. “Combining these factors along with a wildlife clip that will prevent the intrusion of animals, we believe that the city of Chilliwack will be the driving force to a cleaner and greener future.”