The City of Richmond said they do not accept any compostable plastics, although Richmond-Queensborough MLA Jas Johal and a local company have been promoting the concept.
Johal introduced a private member’s bill to ban all sales of non-compostable, single-use beverage pods starting in 2022 last month, after being inspired by local company Canterbury Coffee’s creation of fully compostable coffee pods.
However, the city said that due to various concerns its compost processing operators are not currently accepting compostable plastics in green compost bins, blue boxes or at the recycling depot.
“Because even those that are ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) certified take longer to break down than (the operators’) composting processing time allows,” said Ted Townsend, the city’s spokesperson to the Richmond News.
He added that some operators also don’t want to accept compostable plastics because they think people then start to use more plastic bags to throw them away.
“Trying to remove plastic bags is costly and difficult due to there always being remaining particles, and this impacts their ability to meet regulatory composting standards for finished compost,” he added.
