botpoo.com. "It's good for local residents, but it's bad for the environment," she said. "It doesn't make much sense." The village has a municipal composting facility, but some items, including fruit and vegetables, are not accepted. The bylaws say the food waste should go to a designated organic compost facility. It's a complicated process — a lot of packaging is tossed into the garbage instead of the compost bin — and it's the biggest challenge for composters, the bylaw officials said. When the city issued the bylaws in 2015, the cost to dispose of organic waste in an approved facility was $38 per tonne. That rose to about $50 per tonne last year and will be $63 per tonne this year. The new $4-a-tonne food waste disposal charge is expected to raise $125,000 a year. Pilot Compost's facility has three composting piles where food waste is composted without heat — similar to the way it is composted on farm fields. The mixture is ready to use after three months and is applied to gardens and farms, which then applies it to their fields. It's also used to mix into soil. The city used an environmental consultant to help set up a system for accepting the organic waste, which will be distributed to three to four composting facilities. Pilot Compost said it gets about 50 tonne of food waste a month. The biggest problem with the pilot program is there are too few private composting companies in the city that accept food waste, the company's owner said. "A lot of residents are upset. It's very unusual to have a fee for organic waste, especially when it goes through a composting facility," he said. Last year, the municipality started setting up a drop-off site for small amounts of organic waste, rather than sending it to Pilot Compost. "We didn't ask for it, but it's a problem for us," said the owner of the composting company. "When they announced the composting fee, they didn't mention the $50 per tonne of food waste that residents are paying." Coun. Brian Smith, who sits on the Environment committee, agreed to introduce a new motion to reduce the fees to $25 per tonne of food waste. In an email, he said some residents have a hard time changing their habits because they feel they are not doing their part, while some people are happy to be helping the environment. "With the current rates it's hard for people to wrap their minds around not to put any food waste into the trash at home and the fees associated with getting rid of it at a commercial facility," Smith wrote. Residents in rural areas can drop off food waste in bins located at parks and in town halls. The city charges $40 for residential recycling, which includes cans, plastics, cartons, newspapers, pizza boxes and beverage containers. A billboard advertising compost bins was mounted on a hydro pole near the city's boundaries to urge drivers to make the switch. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... "We're just trying to do our part for the environment, and help make a difference," Smith said. The city is now looking at how to extend the drop-off site and consider what other new fees are appropriate for the community. The province told the city to set its own rates on solid waste management, but that the amount of the food waste component should be based on how much is disposed of in a typical municipality. The city's rates for its other composting components are set by the province. That includes chicken and dairy products, which are accepted at the city's one commercial composting facility. Smith said the composting fees will be reviewed this fall.