Studying curbside residential organic waste collection in Kamloops

The City of Kamloops will be conducting a feasibility study for an organic waste curbside collection program to be offered to approximately 27,000 households. Kamloops is already diverting 60% of its waste, and hopes to increase the diversion to 67%. The new composting program directly supports the city’s long term goals for waste diversion, including reducing solid waste disposal, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and capturing organic waste for beneficial end-uses. The residential organics collection program will be implemented in phases starting with this feasibility study, which will assess the current quantity of organic waste in the solid waste stream. Composition audits will be used to assess public participation and diversion performance. The collection-data review and evaluation results will be used to determine how the program can be improved year over year. The study will also measure the impact that public engagement and community-based social marketing can have on program participation and success. It will include target audience engagement to identify current attitudes and understanding of organics diversion, as well as participation opportunities and barriers. This commitment will provide a baseline measure from which the city can assess its future efforts in implementing and managing the program in relation to resident uptake. The feasibility phase will be followed by an organics collection pilot project. This will allow the city to evaluate the benefits of organics diversion, program participation and compliance prior to community-wide implementation. The pilot will also allow refining of the full program’s operational requirements and financial impacts. The city anticipates that the program will be implemented community-wide by the summer of 2023. Innovative aspect(s): This feasibility study contributes to the development of a composting program that will be a first for the region. Replicability: Other municipalities may benefit from the study’s results, including the use of waste audits and community-wide public engagement to inform the development of a curbside residential composting program. There will be important lessons to be learned from the public engagement component in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that other municipalities could learn from as well. (Project description from original funding application)