Compost Winnipeg Continues to Grow!

To sum up Compost Winnipeg’s first year of operation in an equation:

1 truck + 1 bike trailer + 2 people + 200 subscribers = 80,500 kilograms of organic waste composted.

Phew!!

It has been an incredible amount of work with new and interesting challenges everyday. I am beyond thrilled to have connected with so many supportive compost champions in Winnipeg; together we are growing Compost Winnipeg bigger and better everyday.

In fact, we have such a demand from Winnipeggers, we needed to purchase a second truck and hire another compost courier! I am excited to welcome David Arial to our team starting in early July. With his help, we will be adding many new neighbourhoods to our pick-up zones including Charleswood, Tuxedo, St. James, Fort Garry, North Kildonan…and more!

I am also pleased to welcome Stella’s Bakery, Degrees Restaurant (University of Manitoba), FortWhyte Alive, FWS, Relish New Brand Experience and Riverview Community Centre to our community of composters.

Beyond composting, we have made some really cool connections with other social enterprises in Winnipeg. In March, we embarked upon a massive product destruction project with significant help from the indigenous owned and operated social enterprise Mother Earth Recycling. Together, we recycled and composted nearly 25,000 bottles of recalled protein powder for The Winning Combination. The bottles were systematically disassembled; plastics and cardboard were delivered to Cascades for recycling; and the protein powder was delivered to Overton Environmental for composting. It was close to a zero waste recall initiative.

We also have an on-going assistance from the social enterprise SSCOPE for cleaning our residential compost buckets. As you can imagine, composting can be messy work so we really appreciate SSCOPE’s crew keeping us looking good!

Both of these social enterprises are incredible resources in Winnipeg. Mother Earth Recycling offers employment and training opportunities for indigenous community members, plus, they are the only location in Manitoba to offer mattress recycling services. They also accept electronics for recycling at their centrally located depot near the corner of Main and Sutherland.

SSCOPE facilitates employment opportunities to those coping and recovering from mental health issues. They offer a slew of cleaning, landscaping, and maintenance services, and they operate a second hand store on Arlington Street. Two of their recycling services that I highly recommend are their pick-up services for used toilet and electronics: for as little as $25 they will come to your door and take items away to be properly recycled – so convenient!

On our own end with Compost Winnipeg, please be sure to get in touch if you would like to get on our waiting list for home pick-up. We are now actively bringing on new homes as quickly as possible.  And be sure to wave when you see us out and about in our trucks and on the bike. WE LOVE IT!

Post Submitted on Behalf of Kelly Kuryk, Project Manager for Compost Winnipeg