If you are looking for the best office composting Kitchener has to offer, look no further! Business owners can participate by signing up for the Office Compost Program - contact us today to get started.
Office Composting Kitchener
How It Works
Kitchener’s residential compost program is designed for smaller dwellings. The Region of Waterloo collects green bins only from single-family homes, legal duplexes, eligible townhouse units, and small apartment buildings (6 units or less) every week
If you’re in an office setting, you can still make positive decisions for the disposal of your waste by joining Kitchener Clean’s Office Composting Program. To begin, contact us!
All members of the program receive a Green Bin to collect organic waste and compostable materials.
All the same items that you would Green Bin at home can be put in the Green Bin at the your office. Check out our article on Green Bin etiquette to learn best practices for this part of the process.
Your compostable items will be picked up once or twice weekly by one of our Team Members, at which time you’ll also get a fresh Green Bin!
The organic material collected enters the compost stream in one of three ways:
Sent to the Region’s Compost facility
Donated to local neighbourhood garden compost piles
Used at Kitchener Clean’s Worm Farm where it becomes worm castings (a high grade fertilizer).
Everything you put in the Green Bin at home can go in at the office
Benefits of Office Composting Kitchener
So, why should your office consider joining the Office Compost Program? Let’s take a quick look at three reasons:
Reduce landfill waste: A large volume of organic waste generated in offices is discarded into the garbage.
One of our clients with a team of only 20-25 generated over 600 pounds of organic waste in just one year. We collected 2.3 tons from another company of 145 over the same amount of time!
Not only do you have to pay to have this waste removed from the premises, but it also costs taxpayers to maintain landfills in the area.
Cleaner air: Reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills reduces the amount of methane gas produced on an annual basis.
According to Forbes, “When food is disposed in a landfill it rots and becomes a significant source of methane - a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Growing and transporting the food that goes to waste emits as much carbon pollution as 39 million passenger vehicles.” Workplace composting can, therefore, make a huge impact in terms of reducing air pollution.
Increased employee morale: It feels good to help the environment, and workplace composting can significantly boost employee morale.
Consider this from Entrepreneur.com: “Over the past ten years, consumers (aka employees) have become more interested in sustainability, more concerned about environmental threats and are more willing to take action and/or direct their dollars in ways that benefit (or don’t harm) the environment. Rates of recycling and composting have consistently been climbing, and people, businesses and governments are working to reduce waste through measures like charging for plastic bags, redistributing food leftovers and biking to work. “
Don’t delay - start office composting, Kitchener!
Food Waste Statistics - Why Is Office Composting Important?
Food waste is a major problem worldwide, and a significant contributor to global warming.
According to the Government of Canada, the primary causes of food loss and waste includes:
“Stocking too much food that spoils before it can be sold or eaten
Storage or packaging that is not able to stop food spoilage or contamination
Disposing food scraps in the garbage instead of collection bins for organic waste”
Food that is produced but not eaten ends up in landfills and creates methane, a powerful gas that contributes to climate change.
When food is wasted, all the resources that went into producing that food are also wasted
In 2017 the National Zero Waste Council conducted research on household food waste in Canada, and the results were astonishing.
63% of the food Canadians throw away could have been eaten.
For the average Canadian household, that amounts to 140 kilograms of wasted food per year – at a cost of more than $1,100 per year!
For Canada as a whole, that amounts to almost 2.2 million tonnes of edible food wasted each year, costing Canadians in excess of $17 billion!
All types of food are wasted, but in Canada the most prominently wasted foods by weight are:
Vegetables: 30%
Fruit: 15%
Leftovers: 13%
Bread and Bakery: 9%
Dairy and Eggs: 7%
To put that in perspective, every day in Canada we waste:
470,000 heads of lettuce,
1,200,000 tomatoes,
2,400,000 potatoes,
750,000 loaves of bread,
1,225,000 apples,
555,000 bananas,
1,000,000 cups of milk
and 450,000 eggs!
(Source: https://lovefoodhatewaste.ca/about/food-waste/)
Businesses of all sizes are contributing to this problem. However, by reducing food loss and waste through the installation of a Green Bin at the office, you can also reduce your carbon footprint and help the environment!
Food that is produced but not eaten ends up in landfills and creates methane, a powerful gas that contributes to climate change
Get Started With the Office Compost Program Today!
From our inception, we have always been an environmentally responsible company.
We proudly offer our office composting services to businesses across the Waterloo Region, helping businesses make a positive impact on the environment.
Create a greener workplace with our Office Compost Program - contact us today!
