Food rescue and organic waste pilot

Businesses and industry generating food and food waste are invited to participate in a food rescue and organic waste pilot, beginning in June 2024. Led by the Circular Innovation Council, this short-term pilot hosted in Strathcona County will explore keeping what was once considered waste as a valued resource.

How it worked:

• Waste collection will mimic the residential waste collection model. This enables businesses to work together for consolidated collection, reducing costs.   
• Surplus edible food will be directed to local social agencies – kept at highest value rather than going to waste.
• Organic waste will be collected to be turned into compost for local farms.
• The pilot will determine waste management barriers, motivations and cost considerations.  

During recent engagement on Strathcona County’s Waste Management Roadmap, the County heard from businesses that they have different waste management needs that come with different challenges. Piloting a food waste program will allow us to identify those and assist with solutions on a small scale.   

For more information visit the project webpage.

This pilot project, led by the Circular Innovation Council, was a finalist for the Annual Emerald Awards in 2025. 

Planning the next 10 years of waste management

In 2020, Strathcona County completed a Waste Management Roadmap for the next ten years. The roadmap outlines a collective, community-wide commitment to rethinking waste and diverting more from landfill. It prioritizes an expanded waste hierarchy: rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover and residual, which moves the community towards a circular economy and leading practices in waste management.  

Waste Roadmap - Executive summary (1.8 MB)

Waste Roadmap (13.3 MB)

Waste Roadmap - Implementation Framework (4.0 MB)

Reporting on our progress

To keep track of our progress towards the goals of the Waste Roadmap we create an annual Waste Report Card. You can read the newest version below:

2023 Waste Report Card (709.7 KB)

Sort and Save

The Waste Management Roadmap identified a need to update to a more equitable, flexible waste system, providing incentive for reducing waste. ‘Pay as you throw’ is a system where households pay based on the amount of waste they throw away, similar to how other utilities are charged.

Watch this short video for an explanation of how a pay as you throw system works:

In 2023, Strathcona County introduced smaller cart sizes for waste and organics under a pay as you throw system called Sort & Save.

These new smaller carts are part of a variable rate structure that charges households based on the volume of waste they produce and encourages materials such as organics and recycling to be properly diverted. Different pricing based on cart size introduces equity into the system so that households that divert (sort) more into their recycling and organics can lower their bill (save).