Composting tips to avoid flies and stinky containers

As the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough prepares to start curbside compost pick up for 24,000 more households Feb. 1, Montrealers are looking for ways to keep compost containers free of odours, flies and other pests.

Simple tricks like using wine corks to reduce fruit flies, cleaning with vinegar can ensure tidy composting

Shari Okeke · CBC News · Posted: Jan 26, 2017 8:32 PM EST | Last Updated: January 27, 2017

New bins are appearing in front of homes east of St. Denis street as the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough prepares to start curbside compost pickup for 24,000 more households February 1st. (Kim McNairn/CBC)

Brown bins are popping up outside homes in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough in preparation for a new curbside compost pick up schedule that begins Feb. 1.

Under the program, 24,000 households east of St. Denis Street will have to start dividing their compostable waste from their garbage.

Compost pickup in the Plateau-Mont-Royal will happen once a week while garbage pickup will be reduced from twice a week to once a week.

It's part of the City of Montreal's plan to see curbside compost pickup at 95,000 households throughout various boroughs in 2017 and at more than half a million households by 2019.

Meat and seafood, raw and cooked, are included on the list of items accepted by the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough and that has some residents concerned about flies and odours around both the small container kept in the kitchen as well the large brown bin that goes out to the curb.

Here are some tips to reduce the likelihood of problems related to your compost.

Keep it cool and use newspaper

Keep the small kitchen container inside the fridge or freezer to reduce odours that may come from meat and seafood. Also, keep your compost containers out of the sun.

Line the bottom of your compost container with a layer of newspaper to absorb moisture.

Remember — do not put liquids inside your compost containers.

The Plateau-Mont-Royal borough is distributing smaller composting containers to keep in kitchen. (Emmanuel Marchand/Radio-Canada)

Baking soda, tea tree oil, clay

Sprinkling baking soda on newspaper lining the bottom of your containers can help reduce odours.

The City of Pointe Claire recommends mixing some tea tree oil with water and spraying some on newspaper in your bin — or putting white or green clay at the bottom of your bin to reduce odours.

Plateau-Mont-Royal spokesperson Geneviève Allard said that to avoid the smell from meat, to leave a small compost container in the fridge or freezer. (Shari Okeke/CBC)

Wine corks

The Societé pour Action et Éducation et Sensibilisation Environment Montréal (SAESEM) is a non-profit organization the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough has hired to educate its residents about composting.

Project Manager Raphael Nguyen says cutting a wine cork in half lengthwise can help reduce fruit flies around your bin.

Either place it inside your small kitchen container, perhaps on top of a layer of newspaper, or you can place the cork on the outside of the container, he says.

"Flies don't like it so they don't come," Nguyen said.

Keep squirrels away

To repel squirrels and racoons, SAESEM recommends a few drops of essential oils on the outside of the brown bins.

Nguyen says that can get expensive so the alternative he suggests is a menthol rub.

To repel fruit flies, just slice a wine cork length-wise and put it in your small compost container, said Raphaël Nguyen, project manager at SAESEM, a non-profit organization the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough. (Shari Okeke/CBC)

It's recommended to clean composting containers regularly using vinegar and water

Stop it from freezing

To avoid having the contents of your outdoor bin freeze in the winter, which makes it impossible to empty, the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough recommends lining the bottom of your bin with newspaper then adding a layer of compostable items, then adding another layer of newspaper, and continuing this technique until bin is full.