Dry weather is needed to prepare compost for the public

It was quite a year for the community compost depots in Steinbach with an exceptional amount of material coming to the collection site. 

“We had a good year for compost because there wasn't a drought,” says Eldon Wallman, head of the city’s solid waste department. “We had lots of rain this year, so there was lots of grass and stuff that came in.” 

The city held compost depots at two locations during Saturdays from May until October 15th. 

Wallman says a lot of material was collected at these depots with an exceptional amount coming in during the Thanksgiving weekend. 

“These are big roll off (collection) bins,” he says. “People are familiar, they've seen the big green compost bins. So, you can imagine, we filled those seven times! It was a boomer of a Saturday for us.” 

The final community compost depot was held this past Saturday. Despite the cool, windy and rainy weather, volunteer Dennis Coley says the Woodlawn School location saw quite a bit of activity. He notes the bin had to be emptied at least once. 

Wallman is hoping for consecutive days of dry weather to dry up the huge pile of compost located at the landfill site.  

He says the rainy weather this year has prevented them from screening the pile that just keeps growing. 

“We were almost ready to do it this fall, about a week or so ago, and we got some more rain,” Wallman says. “And it just keeps hitting us at exactly the wrong time. We need about three or four days in a row with no rain so that we can screen this and produce a really nice product for the public to take back. So, we've got a huge pile of stuff here.” 

The city offers the screened product to the public for free pick-up. Wallman is confident the compost will be good quality and an abundant amount will be available. 

“There's a lot of compost there, so I think the public should be happy with us this year if we ever get cooperation from Mother Nature to screen this stuff,” he says. “I don't know where we're going to put it if we keep getting rain. We've got a lot of stuff here.”