The City of Kawartha Lakes is launching its new curbside organics collection program in the urban areas of Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls, Lindsay, and Omemee starting in January 2025.
Residents who are involved in the program will no longer be allowed to dispose of food or other organic waste in their regular garbage. Instead, they will be provided with a 45-litre organic waste bin on wheels for curbside collection, as well as a small seven-litre bin for kitchen use with a couple of compostable bags for the small bin.
During the week of October 21, the municipality sent letters to all residents involved in the program. Bins have been delivered to households in Lindsay and Fenelon Falls, with bin delivery in Bobcaygeon and Omemee to be completed by December 13.
Residents who received a letter that they are included in the program and who haven’t received their bins by December 13 should contact the Kawartha Lakes waste management division or call the customer service division at 705-324-9411 no later than December 17.
With at least 30 per cent of household waste considered organic waste that can be composted, the Kawartha Lakes organics curbside collection program is intended to reduce the amount of organic waste that goes to landfill.
Every year, households in Kawartha Lakes fill up 28,000 cubic metres (more than 11 Olympic-sized swimming pools) worth of landfill space with an estimated 4,500 tonnes of organic waste.
A successful organics program will help the municipality meet provincial policy targets and get closer to reaching our goal of diverting 70 per cent of waste from muncipal landfills by 2048.
That goal is achievable based on the experience of the City of Peterborough, which has had an organics curbside collection in place since fall 2023.
In the first year of operation, more than 28,000 participating households in Peterborough diverted over 6,000 tonnes of organic waste from the city-county landfill, resulting in an overall waste diversion rate of 76 per cent.
In Kawartha Lakes, there are no changes to regular waste collection days as a result of the organics curbside collection program. Residents will continue to put out their garbage and recycling to the curb by 7 a.m. on their regular collection day.
However, regardless of your regular collection day, organics collection will always take place on Fridays, except during weeks with statutory holidays when collection days shift forward a day, when the collection will take place on a Saturday.
That includes the very first organics collection, which will take place on Saturday, January 4th because of the New Year’s Day holiday. Regular Friday collection will resume on January 10. As with garbage and recycling collection, the organics collection bin should be put out to the curb by 7 a.m.
Only properties included in the town limits of Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls, Lindsay, and Omemee are included in the organics collection program. There will be situations where one side of a street is in the program and the opposite side is not in the program.
Residents who are not involved in the program can continue to dispose of their household organic waste in their garbage, although the municipality encourages those residents to consider using composters and digesters.
For more information about the curbside organics collection program, including what can and can’t go into the organics bin, visit www.kawarthalakes.ca/en/living-here/source-separated-organics-program.aspx.
