Preparing for Winnipeg's food waste drop-off locations

With food waste drop-off stations to soon open in Winnipeg, residents can now begin to prepare their food scraps.

“Start putting them into an airtight container or in your fridge or freezer,” said Karrie Blackburn with Compost Winnipeg.

“Or it’s refrigerator weather outside now, so you can just stick them out in a pail or something like that, and then next time you’re going out past one of those community bins, just drop it in.”

Earlier this week, the city announced that Compost Winnipeg is launching 15 food waste drop-off stations across Winnipeg starting on Oct. 15.

With these stations, Winnipeggers can put food and other compostable materials into a container or compostable bag and bring it to one of the sites.

Blackburn explained that one way to determine what can go into the compost bin is to ask yourself whether the item was alive or came from something living. If the answer is ‘yes,’ it can be composted.

She added foods, including fruits and vegetables, can also go into the compost bins.

“Now you might be wondering, ‘Even meat and bones and cheese?’ Yes,” she said.

“Because we have a large-scale composting facility, we can accept a wider range of compostables than you can put in a backyard bin.”

Some items that can’t be put into the city’s drop-off bins, include plastic, compostable containers, and other mixed-material packaging.

Blackburn said this new program will have a significant impact on the community.

“When you consider that 44 per cent of yearly household waste is organics, that’s a significant amount that we can keep out of the landfill,” she said.

“And also it preserves the lifespan of our landfills.”

More information on where the drop-off stations will be located can be found online.

- With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagace and Devon McKendrick.