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Kawartha Lakes – Thank you to everyone that’s been participating in our new Organics Program. With your help, we’ve been able to divert over 100 tonnes of food and organic waste from our landfills so far.
We’ve noticed more and more participation each week but there are still eligible households that are not participating in the program. To meet and exceed our targets, and make the program as cost effective as possible, we require all eligible households to participate.
Organics Program reminders
- The Organics Program is mandatory for all eligible households within the urban areas of Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls, Omemee, and Lindsay.
- Recognizing the time it takes to adjust to a new program and process, the municipality has provided a grace period for the first few months of collection. The grace period is set to end on May 1, 2025.
- When the grace period is over, garbage bags placed curbside that do not comply with By-Law 2024-035 will not be collected.
- Per the by-law, any garbage bags containing more than 10% of food and/or organic waste will not be collected when full enforcement begins.
What to expect
In March and April, collection staff will be placing Oops Stickers on your green bin if it contains materials that are not acceptable for the program. This gives you an opportunity to sort your bin for collection the following week. A letter will be mailed out in March informing all households in the program about the grace period coming to an end on May 1, 2025.
After May 1, 2025, any garbage bags left behind will need to be properly sorted for the following week or disposed of at a landfill at the owner’s expense. Start sorting now, to save yourself the mess of having to sort decomposing food from a rejected garbage bag after the grace period has ended.
How the program works
Sorting your organic and food waste from your regular waste is easy! By now, each eligible household has received a smaller 7-litre kitchen catcher and a larger 45-litre rollout cart. From there, it’s simple:
- Create food and organic waste.
- Put your food and organic waste in your kitchen catcher.
- When your kitchen catcher is full, empty it into your rollout cart.
- Get your rollout cart to the curb for 7am every Friday. If there’s a holiday, collection moves to Saturday.
To make it even easier, we recommend putting a 10-litre compostable bag in your kitchen catcher. It helps with bin cleanliness and makes it easy to transfer your organic waste from the kitchen catcher to the rollout cart.
If you did not receive your bins, please contact our Customer Service team for assistance:
- From Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm, call 705-324-9411 or email inquiries@kawarthalakes.ca
Everything you need to know about the program can be found on the Organics Program page on our website.
Need help with sorting? There’s an app for that!
The Organics Program acceptable and unacceptable material list has been added to the Recycle Coach App. The app is a great resource for sorting your waste, recycling and organics. Using the handy “What Goes Where?” tool, you can type in the item you're looking to sort and the app will tell you where it goes.
We also send out waste delay notices, program reminders and weekly pickup reminders through the app.
Download it today: www.kawarthalakes.ca/RecycleCoach
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