Regina family composts for years, welcomes new program

While some people living in Regina will have to get familiar with composting ahead of a new pilot program, others are already seasoned veterans.

Dallas Bohun and his family have composted for five years, turning food waste into fertilizer for their garden.

“It’s a yard task like anything else that can pile up, but the benefits definitely outweigh the work as far as the produce you get out of your garden,” Bohun said.

The family composts almost everything they can, including vegetables, eggshells and coffee grounds. They have two bins in their gardens to separate wet and dry food. Right now, there’s no cost to compost.

On Sept. 24, city council approved an organic waste pilot project with the goal to divert 65 per cent of waste from the landfill with help from the current recycling program. Once rolled out, homeowners will pay between $36 and $51 per year for the green bins.

Bohun said the cost will be worth it, if it saves him the hassle of hauling leaves to the dump.

“The leaves do get to be a little bit too much, we have too much of that, so those do end up in the garbage,” he said.

“That would be the only thing I see that we would put into the green bin if that rolled out.”

Bohun added the organic waste project will also be worthwhile if the city can divert enough waste to get as much life out of the current landfill as possible.

“Anything you can do to kind of get rid of the amount of food waste that is actually going into the landfill is beneficial.”

He said with the recycling program and their current compost stations, his family can easily handle having garbage picked up every two weeks.

While some people have concerns about the smell from composting, Bohon said that’s not the case.

“There’s worse smells leaving something for a couple of weeks in the fridge,” he said.

“It’s a natural process — it breaks down on its own, it’s outside, it’s never been an issue for us.”

The pilot project is expected to begin in 2020, with the full program set to roll out in 2022.