Preliminary statistics on Castlegar’s new organics program suggest the city has cut the amount of garbage going to the landfill by half.
Municipal services manager Chris Hallam told city council last week that prior to the start of curbside composting on Aug. 21, contractor Waste Management picked up 53.82 tonnes of garbage bi-weekly. Since then, that has dropped to 26.15 tonnes per week.
Weekly organics collection has averaged 23.42 tonnes, for a total of 73 tonnes of material collected every two weeks between the two waste streams, a 36 per cent increase. Hallam attributed it to the fact yard waste is also collected in the organics stream.
“It’s very good in the early stages,” he said.
Hallam said he believed these figures reflect organics loads rejected due to contamination and diverted to the garbage stream.
Organic material is shipped to a new regional facility near Salmo where it is turned into a Class A compost that can be used in agriculture and landscaping.