Did you know that up to half of the typical waste stream in Canada is compostable? It is usually about one third, when you count food wastes and yard wastes, but can sometimes creep up to half, especially when non-recyclable fibre (cardboard and paper that is either contaminated with food wastes, or too low-value to recycle) is added into the total.

Composting, whether it is in the backyard, through a municipal organics collection program or an industry initiative (more and more companies are composting their organic wastes), can take us to 50 per cent and higher when combined with other forms of recycling. If we ever hope to get to our long-term goal of zero waste, we have to make progress in composting.

Waste diversion is good, but it is just a small part of the composting story. Read some of our other factoids on things like soil health, climate change, and clean water to really get the full picture of composting’s benefits.