A new green bin is shown at the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority office in Windsor on Friday, July 11, 2025. The bins will be delivered to single-family homes in several areas of the region this month. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor StarArticle content
Windsor-Essex residents will soon have a new way to take out the trash.
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This month, the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority will begin to distribute green bins to thousands of homes across the region in preparation for a new food and organic waste collection program.
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From July 21 to the end of September, roughly 120,000 homes in Windsor, Essex, Lakeshore, LaSalle, and Tecumseh will receive green bins.
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Collection for those municipalities begins the week of Oct. 21 and will see food scraps and other compostable items picked up separately from other garbage.
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Amerstburg, Kingsville, and Leamington will begin organics collection in the fall of 2026. As a result, residents in those municipalities will receive green bins next year.
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“The important thing is that residents are patient,” Cathy Copot-Nepszy, manager of waste diversion, told the Star. “It’s going to be a two-and-a-half-month process to hit 120,000 households.”
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The green bin kit contains a 120-litre bin, a seven-litre ‘kitchen catcher,’ a how-to guide, and a sample compostable bag and coupon.
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The lid of the green bin will also contain a ‘welcome’ sticker that instructs residents to write their addresses on the space provided. The green bin will be scanned and linked to their address for the solid waste authority’s green bin repair and request program, which will track issues related to bin repairs, warranty, and requests for new bins, among other things.
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A new green bin is shown at the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority office in Windsor on Friday, July 11, 2025. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor StarArticle content
“We do tell people to please look inside your green bins,” Copot-Nepszy said. “Read the sticker on the top. It has very important information for storage and how to use the system properly.”
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In 2024, Windsor-Essex delivered 111,848 tonnes of residential waste to the Essex-Windsor Regional Landfill, according to the solid waste authority’s annual report for last year.
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Copot Nepszy said a 2022-2023 audit of curbside garbage found that almost 50 per cent was food waste.
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What goes in the green bin? Food waste — meat, fruits, vegetables, bones, shells, dairy products, baked goods, and dry goods (pasta, beans, etc.) — is allowed, as are cooking oils, fresh spices, and herbs. The program also accepts organic items: wooden utensils and sticks, facial tissues, paper towels, animal and human hair, compostable bag liners, and food-soiled paper packaging.