Curbside pickup of food waste is coming to Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods as part of a new organics composting program that aims to help cut the amount of garbage going to landfills.

Used coffee filters, greasy pizza boxes, egg shells and leftovers from the back of the fridge will be among the organic materials to be composted along with weeds and grass clippings to be turned into soil and mulch.

It's expected most local cities that now collect yard and garden waste at the curb will also start to accept food waste in the same bins.

"Our hope and expectation is the majority of municipalities will be able to come on board by the fall, and that within a year we'll have everybody on board," said Metro Vancouver waste management committee chair Marvin Hunt.

The food scraps will be trucked to Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre's commercial composting operation in southeast Richmond.

Metro has signed a long-term contract with the firm, which will expand so it can handle an extra 50,000 tonnes per year – equivalent to 7,000 truck loads.

That's a significant portion of the 188,000 tonnes of food thrown in the garbage each year in the region.

Food waste makes up 13 per cent of the flow of garbage going to area landfills.

“That’s a resource we shouldn’t bury in a landfill,” Hunt said. "It's a big chunk of what we need to get out of the stream."

Adding organics composting is a key plank of the region's solid waste strategy of boosting its recycling rate from 55 per cent now to 70 per cent by 2015 to reduce its reliance on landfills.

Fraser Richmond already takes 100,000 tonnes a year of yard waste from local cities and sells soil and mulch products to landscapers and other buyers.

Port Coquitlam was the first city to launch food waste pickup mingled with yard waste last spring, sending it to Fraser Richmond, and Metro officials say the new regional program will let others join.

Port Coquitlam residents toss kitchen scraps in with their lawn clippings, mixed together, or mix food waste with newspaper when they don't have yard waste.

Every past attempt at larger scale food waste composting in the region failed because the stench proved too much for neighbours to take.

But Hunt is optimistic odour won't be a problem this time.

Fraser Richmond has a good track record so far, he said, and is located in an industrial park.

"It is relatively isolated," he said. "We haven't had a lot of issues with the neighbours in the past."

Fraser Richmond also sucks air out of the compost pile and runs the exhaust through a biofilter for odour control.

Nor was Hunt worried food waste going out at curbside might be a magnet for birds, bears, raccoons or other scavengers.

"Other cities have not found it to be a problem," he said.

Since food has until now gone out in the garbage anyway, Hunt said it shouldn't pose any larger challenge – even in areas with lots of bear traffic – than now.

Hunt said residents can keep their food waste in special kraft bags available from retailers and secure them with a clip under the sink until collection day.

Joining the system will be up to individual cities, as will the timing, which may depend on coordinating with garbage pickup contractors.

Hunt was hopeful Surrey could be on board by fall.

The initial emphasis will be on residential household food waste pickup, Hunt said.

But the region will seek to expand its organics composting efforts to include commercial outlets, particularly restaurants and grocery stores.

Metro had also considered a proposal from Net Zero Waste Inc., which proposed a biofuel and compost plant in Maple Ridge using food waste.

"That's still on the radar screen," said Hunt, adding such a plant may work better with commercial food waste.

Fraser Richmond's proposal includes capturing methane and burning it to generate electricity.

That should help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from local garbage.

Organic material releases methane gas when buried in landfills and methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, trapping 21 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.