The Town of Diamond Valley recently conducted an audit of their residential curbside waste programs.
The audit was conducted from June 18th to 20th, 2024, and the audit report indicated that there needs to be some work done to make the town's waste programs more efficient.
During the garbage portion of the audit, the waste bins of 108 homes were examined, which included checks to see if the bins were set out.
The homes being audited were in the Country Meadows, McLeod Crescent, Willow Ridge Close, Emerald Way, 2 Avenue, Royalite Way, and Dingman Close.
These homes had their garbage samples brought to the Black Diamond Laydown Yard and sorted into 11 different categories.
Once sorted into those 11 categories, the waste gets further divided into the subcategories Compostable, Recyclable, Landfill, or 'Other Programs', indicating where the item should've ended up instead.
Other Programs include items like electronics, batteries, and items that could be sent to thrift stores instead.
Of those 108 homes, only 71 (66 per cent) had brought their bins out for collection.
Those 71 homes produced 820.5 kilograms of waste, averaging at 11.6 kilograms per household.
Once divided into the four subcategories, the audit found that 49 per cent of the waste fell into the compostable category, while 37 per cent fell under landfill, 8 per cent recycling, and 6 per cent Other Programs.
The compostable category consisted of 26 per cent food waste, including food still in its packaging that required to be separated prior to tossing them into the bin, such as meat in packaging, 13 per cent yard waste, 7 per cent animal waste, 3 per cent compostable paper, and small amounts of 'other organic waste' such as animal hair and cork.
Under the recycling portion, they primarily found mixed paper, plastics, small amounts of metal, and cardboard recyclables.
The Other Programs section included batteries, paint, oil containers, electronics, and glass food jars.
This audit also looked at what would eventually fall under the new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) recycling program, which will take effect in April 2025.
3.2 per cent of the items that fell under the garbage category will be able to be diverted away from the landfill once the EPR recycling program begins.
During the lid-flip audit of both the organic and recycling carts completed on June 19th in the neighbourhoods of Country Meadows, McLeod Crescent, Willow Ridge Close, Emerald Way, and 2 Avenue.
Of the 104 homes they intended to audit, only 33 carts (32 per cent) put their organics carts out for collection and only 48 recycling carts (46 per cent) were brought out.
The organics carts were only filled, on average, 40 per cent of the way and weighed an average of 13 kilograms per bin.
On top of the approved organics, a visual examination found that there were also plastic bags filled with animal waste and a blue bag was found in one of the bins.
The recycling carts were, on average, 65 per cent full and the average weight was 3.5 kilograms.
Visual examinations of the recycling bins found that on top of the approved recycling, there were non-recycling items, such as non-printed paper, fake plants, a cooker, greasy pizza boxes, food in plastic containers, newspapers with elastics wrapped around them, and more.
A similar audit from 2021 had only six categories, as opposed to the 11 in 2024, but when comparing the two, it found that residents have been consistent in what they put where.
In 2021, 69 per cent of the 153 homes they audited put their garbage bins out, with 43 per cent of its contents being placed in the landfill category, while 13 percent were labelled as recycling, and 45 per cent fell under the compostable category.
The 2021 audit, though, didn't classify animal waste as a separate organics subcategory, but in the 2024 audit, it made up 7 per cent of the garbage stream.
These two audits show that food waste continues to be the main item that shouldn't be in the garbage stream and that residents aren't utilizing their organics to their fullest capacity.
With almost half of the garbage bin contents being compostable material, by diverting that material to its proper locations, there would be a decrease in material heading to the landfill.
To the full report, and what the Town is considering doing to help move towards a biweekly residential garbage collection service, click here.