Composter happy about new project from city

Maple Wood Crescent in northwest Regina is one of the few dozen areas of the city where green bins are present at every house.

The crescent was part of the pilot project for the City of Regina’s curbside food and yard waste pickup program – the program that was recently approved to be permanently expanded to the whole city.

Denise McLachlan lives on that street and was a part of the pilot.

“I was excited to be part of the program. I know some people weren’t, but I was because I did a little bit of composting to begin with so this just took it another little bit farther,” said McLachlan.

She said she would put fruit, vegetable trimmings and peels in her own bin, but the larger green bin opened things up.

“It was nice to have a place to put the grass clippings because we didn’t put that into our little home compost bin because it just wasn’t big enough, so now we’ve got a place that those can go into instead of into the regular garbage,” said McLachlan.

The composting bins will take yard waste, table scraps and things you might think could be recycled but aren’t allowed in the blue bins like used napkins and pizza boxes.

The City of Regina estimates the composting program will divert up to half of the waste that currently heads to the landfill.

The green bins gave McLachlan and her husband more room in their garbage bins, but she said they’re only a two-person household so they normally wouldn’t fill it up anyway.

Some people weren’t happy about the program’s approval. Frustrated over the cost – though the actual number hasn’t been worked out yet – some felt there wasn’t a need, while others don’t like the idea of having another bin to deal with.

McLachlan wasn’t worried about the bin.

“So now we’ve got three bins on the side of the house instead of two,” she said with a shrug.

A city composting program isn’t a new thing; other cities are doing the same thing.

“Calgary has done this a number of years,” said McLachlan. “I know — I’ve been there when I’ve been at a cousin’s house and they’ve had the little compost pail that they had on their counter or under their sink, and that has been a number of years ago.”

McLachlan thought maybe it’s a situation where people just need to get used to a new thing.

“People are doing it, (so) it’s just another thing we try to do to kind of help our Earth be a little more green,” said McLachlan.

The city still has a lot of planning and details to iron out in the program before it begins. It’s expected to start sometime in 2023.