Diverting Organic Waste from RDCK Landfills:

The RDCK now has disposal and processing infrastructure to accept and turn organic waste into compost, diverting this material from our finite, regional landfills.

Check out this video about the Castlegar Curbside Green Bin Program and the Central Composting Facility!

Public Access

Separated Organic Waste can now be disposed by residential and commercial customers at the following RDCK facilities:

All Facilities are CLOSED on ALL Statutory Holidays

Just bringing containers of organics? The cost is $2.50 per container.

Any loads from the public that could fill a pick-up truck bed (1.5m³) or greater requires 48-hour notice. Call 250-352-8161 to book a disposal appointment.

Accepted Materials

The RDCK Composting Facilities can take a wider range of materials than can typically be composted at home, such as meats, small bones, dairy and cooked foods.

Other Accepted Materials

• Animal bedding: straw, hay, wood shavings, untreated saw-dust
• Livestock Manure: from cattle, goats, horses, sheep, pigs, poultry
• Brewery waste/winery waste: non-liquidspent grains, grapes, hops or yeast
• Dairy processing waste: non-liquid material from processing dairy

Prohibited Materials

Essentially, if it wasn't once food you'd have in your kitchen, or made of 100% paper/cellulose, it probably doesn’t belong.

Other Prohibited Items include:

• Noxious and invasive weeds
• Infested/diseased vegetation
• Domestic septic tanks sludge
• Loads containing more than 5% free liquid
• Pet or human hair
• Specified Risk Materials

Organic waste disposal is governed by the Resource Recovery Facilities Regulatory Bylaw.

Why Composting, Why Now?

Reduce Landfill Emissions

Rotting organic waste buried in the landfill creates methane* (CH4). Methane is a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) more potent that CO2**, and traps heat from the sun in the atmosphere. Landfill GHG emissions accelerate climate change by contributing to the generation of methane.

Extend Landfill Life

We don't have limitless space in our landfills. Keeping organic waste out of the trash frees up much needed capacity and extends their working life. While we’ve planned for the future and manage landfills for the long-term, the added space buys time and reduces the long-term costs of putting what can’t be re-used or recycled in its final resting place.

Less Trash More Soil

Organic waste provides a valuable resource when properly composted. Compost helps recycle nutrients back into soil, and healthy soils grow healthy plants. Additionally, soil itself stores carbon from the atmosphere - the more life within soil, the more carbon captured and stored.

How it Works

Composting occurs when high nitrogen organic material (greens) is mixed with high carbon organic material (browns) in ideal ratios, with plenty of oxygen and proper moisture. This environment allows decomposing microbes to thrive as they rapidly break down these organic wastes into a rich, alive, nutrient dense product known as compost. Compost is an excellent soil amendment, as these nutrients are readily available to plants for their growth.

The Central and Creston Composting Facilities both use active aeration to maintain proper temperature and oxygen levels during the decomposition period. This simple and proven technology combines clean wood and yard and garden waste with food and other organic waste. The mixed material is then placed over aeration piping in long piles called windrows.

This method promotes active decomposition, limits odours, prevents methane generation, and produces a safe, high- quality product. Once available, the RDCK will be selling to the public and making available to partners the Class-A compost produced at these facilities.