The Head of the Solid Waste Department for Steinbach says it has been a banner year for composting in the city.

Eldon Wallman says at their weekly compost depots this year they have already collected nearly twice as much as most years.

"A normal year would be about sixty metric tonnes that we collect," says Wallman. "We're past the one hundred tonnes already."

Wallman suggests there has been so much compost this year because of the wet summer we had. And he says it isn't only the depots experiencing a surge this year; Wallman says residents are allowed to bring their compostable material to the landfill and that collection point has been overflowing numerous times this year.

"People are definitely getting more into the serious aspect of composting rather than put it at the side of the road for garbage, which you shouldn't do," says Wallman.

Yet, he says there is still room for improvement. According to Wallman, too much material is still finding its way into the landfill. He says this creates all kinds of problems, including greenhouse gasses, leachate and wasted space at the landfill.

Meanwhile, Wallman says, unfortunately, the wet weather has put a damper on any thoughts of screening compost at the landfill this year. He notes they need a stretch of about seven days in a row without rain, and that just hasn't happened.

"Unfortunately we are not going to screen it this fall, we won't have any compost for the public," says Wallman. "The silver lining is that there is going to be even a much bigger pile in spring."

About half of the screened compost gets used by city staff for parks and beautification. The other half is available to residents for pickup.