Photo via City of Kamloops

As more and more Kamloopsians get use to the curbside organics program, the City is reminding people that compostable plastic bags are not accepted in these bins.

Civic Operations Director Jen Fretz says while these bags are labelled as “compostable”, they only break down under very specific conditions related to processing duration and temperature.

“The composting facility where the City’s curbside organics goes to does not accept any compostable plastic bags because the plastic does not fully break down at this facility,” Fretz said. “”The plastic can contaminate the finished product and introduce microplastics into the soil system.”

“Even if a product label says it is 100 per cent compostable, the fine print will usually state ‘for use where compostable plastic bags are accepted.’ Some product labels are marketed as being made from plant-based material (i.e. corn starch), which sounds nice, but they are a bioplastic, which is still a form of plastic.”

We want to share a friendly reminder that compostable plastic bags are NOT accepted in curbside organics collection.

While these bags are labelled as “compostable”, they only break down at facilities that operate under very specific conditions related to processing duration… pic.twitter.com/rTvw8zWbjd

— City of Kamloops (@cityofkamloops) September 8, 2023

Speaking to City Council, Fretz says Kamloopsians should instead line their organics carts with a paper-based liner, which include newspapers, parchment paper, paper bags, soiled paper takeout boxes, or bottoms of cracker boxes.

“And we found a lot of success in the pilot for people who are literally breaking down cardboard boxes for example and lining their carts,” Fretz said.

“It helps to remove some of that kind of stuff that sticks to the bottom and the sides of the cart so it also keeps your cart a lot cleaned and we found people are saying it has reduced the number of fruit flies and odour and that kind of thing as well.”

While Fretz says lining your organics bins is not mandatory, she notes doing so can also lead to a reduction in the amount of waste being put in the blue recycling bins.

“You’re definitely welcome to put soiled paper and soiled cardboard, and we’ve found people are also then able to reduce the amount of recycling they have because as you know we’re collecting recycling every other week but some of that bulkier cardboard can go into your organics cart and balance things out,” Fretz said.

But Fretz also told Council that part of the reason why the City isn’t accepting these compostable plastic bag, is because the Province has hinted at changing the rules around composting that would ban plastics of all kind in the final product.

“If that were to happen, the communities that are currently allowing those biodegradable plastic bags would then need to say, ‘we’re sorry residents, we will need to change that,'” Fretz added. “What we don’t want is what happened with glass. We were saying ‘glass was in recycling, oh, glass is out of recycling.'”

“So we don’t want that to be a big change for people, so we’re starting out with not accepting the plastic biodegradable bags. And if the province doesn’t do what we are anticipating, we’ll have a look at that again.”

Find more information about the curbside organics program and tips go here.