Beginning in the first week of May, residents will have their household organics collected curbside.
Vernon Mayor Victor Cumming unveiled the new 120-liter organics collection carts Tuesday, April 5 at city hall.
Distribution of the bins started April 4 in the Foothills area and will continue throughout the city for the next four weeks. The bins feature a green lid and come with a smaller bin for the kitchen and a guide with information on the program inside.
“Collecting organics from the residential sector and diverting them from the landfill adds to the list of achievements our community is making as part of our Climate Action Plan implementation,” Cumming said.
Mary Stockdale, co-chair of Vernon’s Climate Action Advisory Committee, said food scraps and organic yard waste that go to the landfill account for seven per cent of Vernon’s greenhouse gas emissions, the city’s third largest source of these emissions.
With the program’s launch, she said the city has done its part to reduce emissions that come from organics; now it’s residents’ turn to use the bins.
“Our community is going to be able to step up and do our part to reduce these emissions simply by choosing to use these new carts to compost household organics materials,” Stockdale said.
The city received provincial support for the program through CleanBC, which funded up to 66 per cent of the $1.4 million project, to the tune of about $937,000.
Cumming said the 120 liter bins were the smallest possible size while still being compatible with the robotic arms used to transfer waste from bins to trucks.
With the arrival of the organics program, the garbage collection schedule in Vernon will switch to once every second week. Organics will be collected every week.
Residents will have a new collection schedule to hear.
A larger 240-liter bin was also made available by request for residents who anticipated needing one. Just over 950 residents requested a larger bin out of 14,000 properties in the city.
Brendan Shikora
organic waste disposal