60% of trash collected curbside in Fredericton isn't actually trash, audit suggests

An audit in Fredericton suggests more than 60 per cent of the material being put in garbage bags for curbside collection could be diverted from the landfill through things like recycling, donating or composting.

The audit was done the first week of November. 

Garbage from a total of 80 homes, collected on garbage day in a number of neighbourhoods, was weighed and sorted by a third-party contractor, GFL Environmental.  

"Everybody has an opportunity to do better," said Jillian Hudgins, the city's environmental strategist and program manager. 

Hudgins presented the results to a council committee Thursday.

Here's how the material sorted out: 

• 38 per cent was real trash.

• 32 per cent could have done into a compost bin.

• 19 per cent could have gone in blue or grey bins or yard waste bags.

• eight per cent could have gone to a redemption centre.

• three per cent could have gone to other places, such as e-waste collection, household hazardous waste day or donation centre.

Residents weren't told about the audit ahead of time because the city didn't want them to alter their usual behaviour. No personal information was collected, Hudgins said.

None of the areas sampled really excelled at keeping recyclables out of the trash, she said.

Information Morning - Fredericton7:19Trash data

The City of Fredericton conducted its first ever waste audit, where they went through the garbage of 80 homes.

Assuming the behaviour in those homes is typical, removing all of the recyclables and yard waste that could be discarded separately for curbside collection would save about $300,000 in tipping fees, she said.

An additional $125,000 could be saved if everyone used depot programs as much as possible.

Pumpkins were present in large quantities in that week's trash, the audit found.

Next year, the city will try to let people know about other options for the popular Halloween decorations, such as the municipal soil facility, Hudgins aid.

Confusion and lack of awareness could be why some other items, including electronics and batteries, were tossed in with the trash as well, Hudgins said.

Information from the waste audit will be shared with Circular Materials, Encorp, Recycle N.B. and the local volunteer-based organization the Fredericton Climate Hub to develop promotional materials and to serve as baseline data as new programs roll out.

The Climate Hub has received a grant from the city to put together a program for waste reduction, said Hudgins.

One focus will be on helping people figure out what goes in which bin, said volunteer member Patrick Schilf.

Another big area for improvement is reducing food waste, he said.  Almost 50 per cent of the waste in the audit was organic material, Schilf noted.

It's a similar situation across Canada, he said.

Food waste is a significant contributor to climate change, said Schilf. It is responsible for unnecessary emissions over the length of the food chain, he said, from transportation to decomposition.

Vancouver has been a frontrunner in clamping down on this, he said, with resources developed for a campaign called Love Food Hate Waste. 

Schif is convinced that Frederictonians would change their habits too, if they got the right information.

The timing was right to get the kind of data in the waste audit, said Hudgins.

An audit of this kind was recommended to the city in 2017, she said. It's a normal thing that municipalities do to identify contamination issues and ways to improve.

The provincial government introduced a waste management strategy in 2023 and indicated there would be changes.

New Brunswick is shifting to extended producer responsibility for packaging and paper waste. Programs have been launched for glass and flexible plastics at recycling depots. And the city has made recent efforts to promote backyard composting and increased the frequency of yard waste collection.

"This is a baseline to measure success against in the future," Hudgins said.