There could be curbside compost pickup in Kamloops by the summer of 2023.

Council has directed staff to look into grant funding for starting up the program.

The goal would be to divert waste from landfills.

Director of civic operations, Jen Fretz, was asked where the city would take organic waste instead.

“We will look at what options there are, from a city perspective, for the medium to long term. But immediately, following the collection, we would take it to some well-established location that is not, unfortunately, within the city boundaries. But that doesn’t mean we won’t look at what the options are for Kamloops in the long term,” Fretz says.

“We need to make sure that whatever site we’re going to be using as a transfer location takes into account smell, vicinity to neighbours, etc. So again, this is a conceptual idea at this point… We certainly need to look at those options and make sure we’re using the one that’s least disruptive for the community.”

City staff says at first, the compost program would only include single-family homes in Kamloops, but the plan would be to expand it to multi-family buildings as well.

The city estimates 38 per cent of household waste can be composted instead. Kamloops residents can take yard waste to the compost facility at Cinnamon Ridge, but currently there’s no pick-up service, like there is for garbage and recycling.