City of Victoria to allow green waste in compost bins — but residents must roll bins to curb

Victoria city council has approved some changes to its garbage collection: on the plus side, residents will be allowed to dispose of garden waste — like leaves, branches and grass clippings — in green bins previously reserved solely for kitchen scraps. 

But the city is stopping its unique backyard or sideyard pickup service where workers went onto private property to bring trash and compost bins to the curbside for emptying. Residents will now have to roll their bins to the curb on garbage day, bringing it in line with most other municipalities. 

Rory Tooke, manager of sustainable assets and support for the City of Victoria, says stopping the backyard pickup saves time and allows the change to garden waste pickup to proceed without extra cost.

"It's a great service and we pride ourselves on that service. It wasn't until we started weighing all of these other considerations alongside of it that we had to look at it and say our residents want more accessible services," Tooke said to host Robyn Burns on CBC's All Points West. 

"We decided — and council decided —  shifting to that curbside model to gain all those additional benefits was the right move to move forward with."

Previously green waste could only be dumped on Saturdays at a public works yard between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m.

"We recognized that there were a bunch of people who couldn't access that service. They didn't either have access to a vehicle, or they had mobility issues, that type of thing," Tooke said. 

It also led to a lot of green waste ending up in the landfill. 

Tooke said a garbage audit of city residents found that 10 per cent of waste in Victoria was yard waste material — much higher than other municipalities in B.C.

"All that organic material that goes to the landfill ends up contributing to emissions," he said. 

This way, he says, more organic matter will be diverted away from the landfill. 

For residents who have mobility issues and trouble putting their garbage out curbside, Tooke said they can contact the city's Helping Hands service for assistance. 

The changes begin Sept. 13.