Compost it right!
With the harvest season upon us, you may be getting ready to preserve fruits and vegetables and make homemade jams, sauces, pickles and more. But do you know where to properly dispose of fruit and vegetable peels, produce crates and bushel baskets? The City of Vaughan is here to provide tips and best practices to help you sort and compost right!
Wooden crates and baskets used to hold produce should be bagged and thrown in the garbage when you’re ready to dispose of them. They cannot be recycled in the blue box or composted.
Food and food scraps belong in the green bin or your own backyard composter. Never dispose of fruit peels and other food products down a catch basin (stormwater drain). Anything going down a catch basin enters the stormwater sewer system, leading directly into the nearest creek, river or stormwater management pond. This water is untreated before eventually travelling into Lake Ontario – the source of Vaughan’s drinking water. Help the city’s water stay safe and clean by keeping food products away from catch basins.
Organic material – like fruit peels and food products – is a valuable resource that currently makes up approximately 30 per cent of our regular household waste. That’s why the City is reminding citizens that composting can make a big difference in reducing waste. The City collects unlimited green bins once a week on your scheduled collection day. Please bag and tie securely. The material is then processed into nutrient-rich compost that is used to fertilize farmers’ fields.
Interested in doing more to reduce food waste at home? The City provides backyard composters for sale, with instructions on how to successfully turn your food scraps and leaves into garden fertilizer. To purchase one, visit vaughan.ca/ServiceVaughan. You can also purchase City-branded blue boxes and green bins through Service Vaughan and get them delivered right to your door.
Below are some other examples of items that go in the green bin:
- Food-soiled paper products such as tissues, all paper napkins, all paper towels and soiled paper plates
- Cut flowers and house plants – excluding soil
- Cat litter and pet waste
Still unsure about where a waste item belongs? Download the City’s Recycle Coach App through the Apple App Store or Google Play for information on sorting your items. The app provides waste-less tips and a personalized collection schedule with optional alerts on what to put to the curb each week. The City also offers an online sorting tool so you can quickly and easily check what item goes where using the search bar.
View the 2021 Waste Collection Schedule (PDF) online. The schedule includes Double-Up Days, leaf and yard waste collection and other important waste reminders for the year. Citizens can also keep an eye on the City’s social media channels for our new, bi-weekly Waste Less Mondays campaign for quick tips on sorting and waste disposal.
The City of Vaughan is a leader in waste management. Vaughan’s early commitment to York Region’s SM4RT Living Plan (Waste Management Master Plan) further strengthens that promise. This plan identifies initiatives that set the stage for waste management to 2059 and beyond, focusing on the four Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle and recover – working toward a world in which nothing goes to waste.
For more information about waste services in Vaughan, visit vaughan.ca/waste.
For updates and news as they happen, subscribe to Vaughan News and follow the official corporate channels on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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