Orange rinds, coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, plastic bags--one of these items doesn't belong with the others in the yard trimmings containers of households now that food scraps are accepted for recycling.

Plastic is appearing at levels exceeding what's allowed in the city's contract with Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre, the compost company that turns the scraps into topsoil, according to Rowan Birch. Birch, assistant city engineer in the city's solid waste department, said there's good participation in the three-month old program, but plastics are a problem.

"People are tending to put their food scraps in plastic bags, which of course is a contaminant when we try to compost that material later on. I guess it's a bit of the yuck factor. We've got to educate them about alternatives--how you can do it in a different way and still not get your hands messy," he said.

Plastics need to be separated manually or mechanically if they reach the recycling facility. Although some biodegradable plastics are labelled as compostible, they're not accepted by the facility. Newsprint and brown paper bags can be used to wrap food scraps and line collection bins.

Wrapping food scraps in plastic also creates high moisture and low oxygen conditions that cause strong odours, while paper absorbs moisture and allows oxygen in.

"Operationally, [plastics] have not caused us to have any loads rejected, but it does cause the composter some extra work," Birch explained. "They've been good. They've been dealing with pulling plastic bags out of the stream at the contractor site, but really we want to bring down the amount of plastic material that gets in there in the first place as much as possible."

The contract permits .05 per cent of contaminants by weight--about one pound per tonne. If crews see a large amount of plastic in bins, they tag bins and homeowners must remove it.

Steve Aujla, executive vice president of Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre, said all inorganics, whether they're soft or hard plastics or Styrofoam, are a problem. Some residents even dump garden hoses in their bins. Contaminants are collected and shipped to the landfill.

"All of these things are a problem for us because we're an organic recycling facility. Everything that comes in has to go out in the form of compost. Nobody likes plastic in their finished compost," Aujla said. "The problem is you don't get all of it out. Even with manual and mechanical [removal] there's still a little bit that slips by. It doesn't take much--you get one shopping bag in there and that gets shredded into 1,000 pieces. Let's not forget, the success of these organic recycling programs depends on our ability to market the finished compost. If this continues, this could potentially impair our ability to find higher-end markets."

The city has collected food scraps from homes every two weeks since late April. Only uncooked fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and filters, teabags and egg shells are allowed. Cooked produce is not allowed because it's susceptible to odour, pests and insects.

Other items not permitted include oil, grease or chemicals, coffee cups, diapers or wipes, animal waste or cat litter, meat, fish or bones, dairy, pasta, rice or bread, any other cooked food or rocks, soil or sod.

It's uncertain if fines or penalties will be imposed. "We'd like to get there by education, so I hope we don't have to get to that point," Birch said. "Right now we have a successful program and food waste is getting composted, so as long as that's happening, we're going to try the educational process."

noconnor@vancourier.com