Canada's green bin: mastering your organics collection

Organics — food scraps and soiled paper — make up close to half of what the average Canadian household throws out. Green bin programs divert all of that to composting or anaerobic digestion instead of landfill, and they've become standard in most cities: Toronto's program turns scraps into compost and biogas, Ottawa runs weekly organics pickup, and BC municipalities from Vancouver to Victoria treat food scraps as banned from garbage. If you're new to the green bin — or only half using it — here's how to get it right.

What goes in

Green bins take more than most people assume. Because the material goes through industrial processing — not a backyard pile — the "no cooked food, no meat" rules of home composting don't apply:

• Fruit and vegetable scraps, peelings and pits
• Meat, poultry, fish, bones and shellfish shells
• Dairy, eggs and eggshells
• Bread, grains, pasta and baked goods
• Coffee grounds, filters and tea bags (most programs)
• Food-soiled paper: paper towels, napkins, pizza box bottoms and paper plates
• Small amounts of yard waste like house plants and leaves (check your municipality — some want yard waste separate)

The liner question — it depends where you live

This is the rule that varies most, and the one to check on your city's website. Toronto accepts plastic bags as liners (they're screened out at the plant). Ottawa requires compostable or paper liners. Metro Vancouver wants scraps loose or in paper — no plastic, and "compostable" plastic bags are often rejected too. Getting the liner rule wrong is the most common reason loads get flagged, so it's worth the 60 seconds to confirm yours.

Surviving raccoons and deep winter

Two uniquely Canadian challenges deserve a strategy:

• Wildlife: use the bin's locking latch every time (most green bins have one, and a locked lid defeats most raccoons), put the bin out in the morning rather than the night before where bylaws allow, and wrap meat and fish scraps in newspaper or a paper bag to cut the smell trail.
• Freezing: at -20°C, wet scraps freeze solid to the bin and half the contents stay behind on collection day. Line the bin with newspaper or a paper yard-waste bag, drain liquids before scraping plates, and keep the bin against the house wall where it catches a little ambient warmth. Freezing scraps in your kitchen freezer until the night before pickup works brilliantly too.

Why it's worth the habit

Food in landfill generates methane; the same food in a green bin becomes compost for parks and farms, and in some cities renewable natural gas for the collection trucks themselves. There's a personal payoff as well: with organics out, garbage bags stop smelling, and many households find a garbage bag lasts two or three weeks — handy where garbage pickup is biweekly or bag-tag limits apply. And with garbage, recycling and organics all running on different schedules, BinMinder's free evening-before reminders keep every stream straight, matched to your exact address.