The bin that some residents received from the City as part of a organic waste pickup pilot project in Kamloops.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Patrick Griffiths

A Kamloops man is fuming after being put on a pilot project for organic waste collection by the City last month without his consultation, a project that is scheduled to run for a year.

Patrick Griffiths has a family of four with a baby on the way. He said the program is causing backed up household garbage and clouds of smelly fruit flies.

“We had no say in this,” he said. “The City picked routes and we are on one of them. We tried to follow along in a huge way but it just isn’t working.”

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Residents are required to have three bins, one for household garbage, one for recycling and a smaller one for compost and organics. The household garbage bin and the recycling bin have alternating pickups, so they are each picked up every other week instead of the standard weekly pickup. The compost is picked up every week.

“By the time it gets to pick up day everything is full and if there is a room in the garbage bin I am now tossing extra recycling in there,” Griffiths said. “I almost missed garbage day and thought I was going to have a heart attack.”

Griffiths said he doesn’t have children in diapers at the moment but he soon will. He is concerned about dirty diapers sitting in bins for two weeks at a time.

“If we were a bigger family we would run out of room for garbage and recycling,” he said. “We would be taking extra trips on the weekends to deal with it.”

As for the composting bin, Griffiths said it is not working either, and it is attracting bugs.

“Most people on this rural route have gardens and yards and they compost already,” he said. “It might be an idea for people downtown living in apartments. The fruit flies are ridiculous. They are everywhere now, they get into the bin, and like the heat and humidity.”

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Griffiths said he feels spiteful and wants the City to take the bin away. 

“You think you would see how useful the additional bin would be before cutting back on other services,” he said. “I am probably going to put it in my garage and use it for beer cans.”

City councillor Bill Sarai is asking people to voice their concerns on a City web page called Let’s Talk Organics.

“This is a pilot project,” he said. “Please refer your comments and any feedback on the program to the page so we can be aware of all the issues, good and bad.”

The program is in place in some neighbourhoods to help the City learn what works well and what needs to be improved with a future goal of having a community-wide program. During the program the City is collecting organic waste from one pilot route in each of the current five collection zones.

All households on pilot routes were given an organics cart, a kitchen bin and an information package.

To learn more about the Curbside Organic Waste Collection pilot project or to provide feedback on the project, visit the Let's Talk Organics web page here.

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