Acceptable Green Cart Material |
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DO NOT PLACE THESE ITEMS IN YOUR GREEN CART |
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I need a green cart or mine is brokem, where can I get one?
Green carts are available for purchase from your municipal office. Please contact them directly for details.
Which way should my green cart be turned at the curb?
Your green cart must be placed 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 m) from the curb or roadside (in driveway, not on sidewalk or snow bank). Green cart must have 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) of clearance around it to allow for proper collection and with wheels facing away from the road.
Can I use plastic bags that claim to be compostable or biodegradable?
No. Plastic bags of any kind (including biodegradable and compostable plastic bags) are NOT accepted in our green cart program. Our equipment was never designed to process material in bags.
Why are they available for purchase locally?
Stores often stock items nationally. Most of the products will have some sort of message that would reference “where facilities exist” or “confirm with your organics collection program provider for acceptability”.
Where I lived before you were allowed to use bags. Why not here?
There are many different methods of composting used by Communities across Canada. These specific instructions related to compostable plastic bags is in place for any community or business who sends organic material to the Ottawa Valley Waste Recovery Centre for composting. Always check with your local municipality about their specific requirements for recycling and composting programs.
What happens to organic material that comes into your facility that is in plastic bags?
Unfortunately, it gets discarded as landfill material. Incoming green cart material is hand sorted by staff and anything that won’t compost (i.e. plastic bags) or that will damage equipment (i.e. large pieces of wood) are pulled from the pile before the material goes through our processing system. The bags, and often the contents if the bag hasn’t broken open, are discarded as landfill. Any bags that aren’t removed get wrapped around the augers of our equipment and cause significant maintenance issues.
I’ve had some of these bags under my sink and they have already started to break apart into tiny pieces.
Often the bags do not fully decompose, they breakdown into tiny pieces. Also, when you permit biodegradable or compostable plastic bags – people assume any plastic bag is acceptable leading to even more contamination in the compost.
Is this a change to your program?
No, we’ve been a paper based compost program since 2002.
If I can’t use compostable bags – what can I use?
There are paper bags on the market, some have a cellulose liner on them to help with moisture. You can also wrap material in newspaper or place food waste in cereal or cracker boxes and toss the entire thing in the green cart. The green cart can also be lined with a leaf & yard waste paper bag.