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This article was published 6/2/2016 (1686 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers will soon be asked to choose from three options for organic-waste collection — but council’s environment boss is also considering a fourth option that involves no collection of compostables.

Within weeks, the water and waste department will hold public consultations.

In 2011, consultations showed 60 per cent of Winnipeggers wanted curbside organic-waste collection, and a 2015 phone survey suggested support for the program had risen to 80 per cent, said city supervisor Randy Park.

The city has a better idea of the cost of collecting organic waste, in terms of supplying residents with green bins and turning the waste into compost at a new processing facility, which would likely be built at the Brady Road Landfill.

On Thursday, councillors were told about three collections options: fruit and vegetable scraps, all kitchen waste or kitchen scraps and pet waste. The additional annual cost per household would be $55 to $100.

Public consultations will seek to identify which of the options best meets Winnipeggers’ needs.

Each of the options differs not just in cost, but in the amount of organic waste it would divert from the landfill and the resulting reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

The dump is the second-worst polluter in Manitoba.

When organic waste breaks down underground, it produces methane, which is 21 times more destructive as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, a byproduct of decomposition in the presence of oxygen.

As a result, most large Canadian municipalities already collect organic waste, to some extent.

Winnipeg is the largest city in Canada that hasn’t had a pilot project.

"There’s a two-fold benefit to organic-waste collection. You’re reducing your greenhouse gas emissions and then you’re introducing a quality compost into the community,’ Park said.

"I think it’s great that for the next couple of weeks, this issue will be feverishly debated. Any time we look at our waste and what we discard, I think that’s great,’ he said.

"Right now, everyone is focusing on the $100, but there are different options... If we see the public wants a specific program, that’s what we’ll come back with.’

A report recommending one of the options, based on public consultations, is slated to come before city council this summer, Park said.

A decision must be made well before the September 2017 expiration of the city’s current garbage-and-recycling collection contracts, he added.

All three of the options would see households given two bins: an outdoor green bin, capable of storing 80 to 120 litres of scraps, with a racoon-resistant lid; and a seven-litre bin to temporarily store scraps inside.

The chairman of council’s water and waste, riverbank and environment committee, however, is not convinced the city should collect organic waste.

"I think there’s a fourth option there, which is don’t do it. If the public is very much opposed to it, we shouldn’t,’ St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes said.

"We’re going to get public consultation. We haven’t made up our minds yet on what we want to do.’

Mayes said if the city does proceed with organic-waste collection, there may be a more equitable way to pay for the program than to levy the same charge to every household, regardless of the value of the property.

He said he’s heard from residents who compost kitchen scraps using bins provided by the city who are upset at the prospect of having to pay for collection.

Opting out of a program would not be possible, said Park, explaining the city cannot meet its waste-diversion goals unless all residents participate in the program.

Asked for his own opinion about the best option, Mayes said it would be unfair to require residents who don’t have pets to pay to collect kitty litter and dog feces.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca