It’s been almost a year since 28,000 households in the City of Peterborough started separating organic waste from garbage, and in so doing have collectively diverted more than 6,000 tonnes of methane-producing organics from the city-county landfill.

The first day city public works crews took to the streets was October 31, 2023. In a new fleet of split-body side-loading trucks, equipped with the helping-hand automated lift arm, the trucks set out to do one thing — well, actually two things: collect household organics and garbage in two separate compartments.

From the curb, these trucks head to the new composting facility co-located at the city-county landfill site on Bensfort Road. Once the trucks are across the scales, their first stop is the receiving building where the organics are tipped out and mixed with leaf and yard waste to achieve the right balance of carbon (from leaf waste) and nitrogen (from organics) to optimize the composting process.

Once mixed, the material goes into a series of concrete bunkers equipped with Gore Covers that help maintain optimal temperature and moisture levels for aerobic digestion. This is where the magic really happens. After six weeks of moving through the bunkers the material has reduced in volume by about 25 per cent and is then ready to be moved into uncovered windrows for a further four to six weeks.

At this point, it has been almost three months since these kitchen scraps left the curb, and they look a whole lot different.

After curing in windrows, the compost is passed through a rotary screening machine that removes large pieces of material and contaminants, like plastic. Once it’s all screened, it’s tested to ensure it meets the Ontario compost quality standards and to measure nutrient content. The finished product is a great big pile of rich, earthy compost ready to start the cycle all over again.

But that’s not all. While 28,000 households seems like a lot (it is), there are still apartments, condominiums, and the commercial sector that aren’t included in the program yet.

Plans for future phases of the organics program will be subject to assessments of the lessons the city has learned throughout phase one of the program, the goals for expansion, and the necessary budget and timing considerations that go along with such a big municipal project.

Household participation in phase one has been outstanding, and the city is now collecting about 20 per cent more material than originally projected. This is great news, but it will require capacity-building to meet the needs of all residents and sectors into the future. This too is possible.

The City of Peterborough received federal grant funding through the Low Carbon Economy Fund to build the compost facility. The provincial government has been contemplating a ban on organics in landfills since 2018. This demonstrates that other levels of government have a stake in expanding composting capacity.

Of course, with new adventures come lessons learned. The city still deals with an unfortunate amount of plastic contamination in the organic material. Whether by accident or due to dubious branding of “compostable” products, a lot of plastic continues to enter the compost facility.

This includes plastic pet waste bags labelled as biodegradable (which is not the same as compostable), milk bags and snack wrappers tossed in the wrong bin, and spoiled produce left in its packaging. With the help and attention of community members, waste can be kept in its place and out of local compost.

Separating organics from garbage has brought the overall diversion rate to more than 75 per cent and increased the life expectancy of the city-county landfill by almost three years.

The value of the work community members put into waste diversion is clear, and the success of the program is due in large part to the dedication of residents.

Keep up the good work, Peterborough!

Green bin tips

• Squirrels love compostable material and will chew right through the green bin to get at it. If these determined foragers damage your bin, call the city’s public works department at 705-745-1386. They will come to your house to repair it.
• Washing out your green bin every month helps reduce odour and pests, like flies and wasps. Simply hose it out or pour hot water around the inside to rinse it.
• Yard waste like leaves and weeds do not belong in the green bin. These should be collected in yard waste bags or in bins labeled with a yellow City of Peterborough green waste sticker.

For more helpful green bin tips, visit peterborough.ca/greenbin.

Shivaan Burke is the Waste Management and Circular Economy coordinator for the Environmental Services Division at the City of Peterborough. GreenUP invited the city to write this column to kick off Circular Economy Month in October. A circular economy minimizes waste by reusing and recycling materials in a continuous loop. Composting turns organic waste into valuable compost which can enrich soil and reduce the need for new resources.

Visit the GreenUP Store and Resource Centre for kitchen collectors, backyard composters, compost liners, and city yard waste stickers. The store also offers a hard-to-recycle drop-off station for coffee bags, oral care waste and packaging, air and home care recycling, and razors and shaving items. The store is located at 378 Aylmer Street North in downtown Peterborough, or you can shop online at shop.greenup.on.ca.

Trent University’s Peter Gzowski College is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and the college’s principal Melanie Buddle is celebrating her own 20th anniversary of sorts.

Gzowski College’s two-decade milestone has an important connection to many areas of Buddle’s life, as the college was built not long after she began her career at Trent University and soon after settling into her life in Peterborough and becoming a mother — all factors that shape who she is today.

“It’s an interesting time for me because I have all these things going on in my life and lots of them are things I’ve been doing for years, but it does feel like a bit of a culmination of 20 years around Peterborough,” she says.

After growing up in Lakefield, Buddle left the region to study theatre and history at the University of Guelph before completing her master’s degree and PhD in British Columbia.

It took becoming a young mother to bring her back to Peterborough, where she finished her PhD while simultaneously raising a newborn. During this time, while parenting full-time, she also launched her professional career, beginning her trajectory at Trent University first as a course instructor, before moving into full-time work as an assistant professor, academic advisor, and then college principal.

“I like teaching, but I didn’t like all the other things that came with being an academic,” she recalls. “I liked being in an academic environment, I liked helping students, I liked working with students, I liked interacting, but not the archival work — writing another article or book was not really for me.”

It then would make sense that she ended up in the administrative role she did, as a principal where she continually helps students “figure out their path” by sitting with them one-on-one while still having a leadership role around the institution.

“It allows me to continue to support students but also make sure that a whole team in the college is supporting students and making sure they are getting what they need,” she says. “The job is super interesting because it’s right in between the administrative jobs at the university where you’re doing work for students but not interacting with them and the other jobs where you’re all frontline and you’re just doing appointment. I’m right in the middle and that’s what I love.”

While building her career, Buddle was also raising two kids who now, themselves, are not far from the age of the students she interacts with every day on the job. Both, however, have taken much different career paths as her daughter Taren Ginter is in Tokyo in Japan doing a master’s and PhD program in astrobiology while her son Cameron Ginter is in British Columbia in mountain adventure skills training.

With her husband Drew Ginter also working in the education sector as a teacher at James Strath Public School in Peterborough, you might think the couple would have encouraged both their kids to pursue higher education, but Buddle says that’s not the case.

“Post-secondary education is really important, but it’s not for everyone,” she says. “There’s a lot of things that young people can do that are on a different path. I do think that people going to university or college when they’re not ready can be much worse.”

Being unsure about her own career aspirations when she first entered post-secondary school helps her now connect with the students who come to her feeling embarrassed because they’re not sure what they want to do. Using her own experience, she assures them it’s okay to be in doubt and often suggests students explore their interests outside of academics through volunteering, work placements, employment, and joining teams.

“When students get involved outside their classes, that’s where they start to develop their passion and then they move into really interesting careers,” Buddle says. “A lot of students in our current era change their majors and change their mind along the way. I think that helps them land somewhere because when you figure out what you don’t like, then you start to figure out what you will like. I think they need to know they’re okay if they’re open to change.”

That’s where she says being in a place like Peterborough is beneficial.

“Peterborough is still pretty small, and Trent is definitely still small enough that people make great connections and then they find things they want,” she says. “It’s a really great incubator for people. I think the university is as well because we do allow for quite a bit of exploration in figuring out what you want to study.”

Now that her kids are all out of the nest, Buddle is spending more time getting immersed in that community and, after a couple of years as a board member of Peterborough’s ReFrame Film Festival, is now the chair of the non-profit organization that celebrated its own 20th anniversary last year.

Actively involved in the arts during the “explosion of culture, art, and theatre in Peterborough in the late ’80s,” Buddle wanted to meet the needs of her creative side.

“I’m really glad I got involved with ReFrame because I’ve met incredible people, both on the board and at the film screenings,” she says. “I’m sort of figuring out how to be out in the world a little bit more without being in the trenches of childcare, and getting involved in volunteer work and giving back to the community is a really nice way to do that.”

Also an avid cyclist, Buddle also joined forces with other cyclists in the community to form the Peterborough Derailleurs, and participates in the Ride to Conquer Cancer in support of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre every spring. Over 10 years, the group has raised over $250,000.

While the next chapter of her life will include more time for community involvement (though she assures she is not leaving any of her current responsibilities behind), she is eager to be celebrating some of the successes over the years with the 20th anniversary celebration of Gzowski College from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday (October 5), with the family of the college’s journalist namesake as special guests.

“I watched it being built,” says Buddle, reflecting on her time at the college. “I never would have guessed that I would be this engaged and involved in most of its history.”

Just as she thinks Peterborough is a great place for young people to find the connections that help them on their career paths, Buddle attributes the community to her own successes as a professional, mother, and community member over the past 20 years.

“I think there are a lot of women like me who, in a smaller town, end up knowing so many people,” she says.

“I think the size of this town and the passion you can have for a variety of different areas can really open a lot of really fun trajectories that get you engaged in the community.”

Kawartha Land Trust (KLT) has established a memorial forest in a protected nature reserve in Peterborough County, where donors to the land conservation charity can have a loved one’s name included on a memorial sign that they can visit throughout the year.

KLT held an opening ceremony last Friday (September 27) for the new Roussel-Steffler Memorial Forest located within KLT’s Roussel-Steffler Memorial Sanctuary in Douro-Dummer Township.

The Roussel-Steffler family donated their 102-acre property — which includes forests and a section of a provincially significant wetland — to KLT in 2023, in honour of the late Paul Roussel who had cared for the property for decades.

Along the edges of the now-protected forest are trees that the Roussel-Steffler family — Roussel and his wife Marlene and their sons Dan and Mike — planted during the 40 years they owned the property as they worked to reforest sections of their land.

KLT will continue the reforestation of sections of the nature sanctuary through memorial forest plantings of native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers in the retired agricultural field.

“From the growing community of understorey plants to the eventual towering canopy, we’re building toward a forever forest here,” said KLT’s land stewardship manager Hayden Wilson during the opening ceremony of the memorial forest.

Other speakers at the opening ceremony included KLT’s executive director John Kintare and donor relations coordinator Oriona Rendon as well as Mary Anne Caibaiosai, a knowledge keeper originally from Wiikwemkoong unceded territory (Manitoulin Island), who spoke about connecting to those who have passed through nature and the nature of grief. Douro-Dummer Township mayor Heather Watson also attended the ceremony.

KLT unveiled the Roussel-Steffler Memorial Forest sign during the ceremony. For a donation to KLT of $100 or more, members of the public can protect nature in memory of a loved one and can choose to have their loved one’s name included on the memorial sign, which will be updated each year. KLT will hold an annual ceremony at the Roussel-Steffler Memorial Forest each fall to honour and remember those recognized on the sign.

“When my father died unexpectedly in 2020 I learned first-hand how touching it can be to know that other people are memorializing the ones we love,” Kintare said at the opening ceremony. “I also learned how difficult it can be to come together to remember, especially when our loved ones are laid to rest far away. KLT’s Roussel-Steffler Memorial Forest provides this space.”

Founded in 2001, KLT currently protects 43 properties that include more than 7,350 acres of ecologically diverse lands, some of which are open to the public to hike or enjoy nature. Donors can visit the Roussel-Steffler Memorial Forest any time throughout the year to walk the grounds, visit the memorial sign, and remember their loved one.

To make a donation in memory of a loved one, visit kawarthalandtrust.org/you-can-help/giving-in-memory/. Donations to KLT will support the reforestation of the Roussel-Steffler Memorial Forest and other priority land protection and stewardship projects in the Kawarthas.

“I am so grateful to the Roussel-Steffler family for making this possible through their generous donation of the land,” Kintare said. “I hope this property becomes a place of memory and celebration for our community.”

As the need for family doctors and other primary care practitioners intensifies throughout the nation, Peterborough County is hitting the road to talk about its own recruitment efforts.

The county is hosting a series of “911 Local Healthcare” town hall meetings, with the next one running on Saturday (October 5) in the Municipality of Trent Lakes. Trent Lakes residents are invited to join the meeting at 10 a.m. at the Cavendish Community Hall, located at 18 Community Complex Dr. in Buckhorn, to hear about the county’s efforts and learn how they can also be part of the solution.

Lori Richey, Peterborough County’s healthcare advancement coordinator, is hosting seven in-person town hall meetings and some virtual gatherings as well for those unable to attend the in-person events.

“The goal of the town hall is to share, in person, the work that is being done on their behalf to attract and retain primary care physicians/nurse practitioners in Peterborough County, to educate the public about the current state of the health system, and to discuss how they can become involved — as it takes a community to care for a community,” Richey told kawarthaNOW.

The county shares the following reasons for attending the October 5th town hall: you are a resident of Trent Lakes, you want to know how to access medical care if you do not have a family physician, or you want to help in your community’s efforts to recruit and retain family physicians.

The session encompasses an introduction to Richey and her role, which the county says is “a pivotal addition to our community-focused initiatives.” Established in the fall of 2023, the position was specifically designed to address the unique health needs of residents across the eight lower-tier townships.

“With a primary objective of attracting and retaining family physicians in Peterborough County, our coordinator also prioritizes health education to empower individuals with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions,” the county said about Richey’s role.

Richey has more than 28 years of experience in the health care sector, which includes previously serving as executive director and physician recruiter with the Peterborough Family Health Team.

During the town hall, attendees will find out how to keep up-to-date on current advocacy efforts and learn about the county’s healthcare needs assessment form and the “healthcare ambassador” initiatives, along with Peterborough County’s healthcare resource guide. They’ll also learn how they can help attract physicians to their community.

While no registration is required to attend the October 5th session, the county asks residents to arrive at the hall shortly before 10 a.m.

According to the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), more than one in five Canadians — an estimated 6.5 million people — don’t have a family doctor or nurse practitioner they see regularly.

In addition, the CMA says the number of family doctors “isn’t keeping pace with demand.” The federal government expects Canada to be short nearly 20,000 family doctors to fill job openings up to 2031, the CMA noted.

Back in Peterborough County, upcoming “911 Local Healthcare” town halls include:

• Township of Selwyn: Tuesday, November 12 at 7 p.m. in council chambers at the Township of Selwyn building (1310 Centre Line, Selwyn)
• Township of Douro-Dummer: Wednesday, November 13 at 7 p.m. in the Harvest Room of the Douro Community Centre (2893 Highway 28, Douro)

For more information about Peterborough County’s efforts on physician recruitment and health education, visit the “Your Health Matters” page at www.ptbocounty.ca/yourhealthmatters.

An investigation is underway into the death of a 43-year-old woman in an apartment fire in Peterborough on Tuesday afternoon (October 1).

At around 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday, a Peterborough police officer on general patrol was flagged down and made aware of a fire in an apartment at a small three-storey residential building on the northwest corner of Rubidge and Townsend streets.

After responding to the fire, Peterborough Fire Services found a 43-year-old Peterborough woman inside the apartment.

Despite life-saving efforts from firefighters and emergency medical services, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

Peterborough police and the Ontario Fire Marshal will be at the scene on Wednesday to conduct their investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Peterborough police at 705-876-1122 ext. 555 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at stopcrimehere.ca.

The annual Hike for Hospice has raised a record-breaking $136,000 for Hospice Peterborough.

Held for the first time in three years as an in-person event, almost 250 participants gathered on September 22 to walk in support of the non-profit organization that offers — at no cost to those who need it — support to individuals and families living with or affected by life-threatening illness and grief, including palliative care.

According to a newsletter from Hospice Peterborough, many of those who participated in this year’s event did so in memory of a loved one who had died.

The event began in Millennium Park with opening ceremonies that included drumming and singing by local women’s drumming group Unity and opening remarks from Hospice Peterborough’s executive director Hajni Hos, with a reflection from Hospice Peterborough’s supportive care counsellor and podcast host Red Keating and music by the Hospice Singers.

Participants then walked from Millennium Park to Roger’s Cove in East City, with the option to continue to the beach at Beavermead Park.

For the past 22 years, Hike for Hospice has been Hospice Peterborough’s largest annual fundraiser. It was held as a virtual event from 2020 to 2023 due to the pandemic, returning as an in-person event this year.

“Hospice Peterborough extends a massive thank you to hikers, donors, staff, volunteers, sponsors, and everyone who made the event a success,” the organization’s newsletter states.