Burnaby residents are trying out the new food waste collection program in Burnaby with mostly positive results.

But people should keep in mind that plastic bags are not compostable, said Steve Aujla, executive vice-president of Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre.

Fraser Richmond is the company that composts wood, yard and food waste for the Lower Mainland region.

"We still have a small group of residents in Burnaby who are using plastic bags," Aujla said. "Plastic is a real problem for us."

Other than that, Aujla said, most residents are complying with the new food waste collection regulations.

Fraser Richmond sells the compost it produces back to parks boards in the municipalities the yard and food waste comes from, and also commercially.

Residents can purchase compost, soil containing compost, top dressing, mulch and more directly from the company, thereby completing the composting cycle, Aujla said.

It is called "closing the loop," in recycling, he said.

"It's very rare to achieve it (completely)," Aujla said, but added with composting, it is possible.

Products can be bought wholesale in large quantities from Fraser Richmond and will be delivered, or they can be bought from Greenway Landscape Supply at 3888 Marine Way, he said.

The company has been operating in Richmond since 1993, he said, and has been accepting curbside collected yard waste from municipalities since the mid-'90s.

Yard and food waste is transferred to Fraser Richmond from Burnaby's Still Creek depot and is mixed with green material and wood.

"We have a bit of a recipe," Aujla said.

The mixture is left to sit in batches for seven to nine weeks as natural organisms break down the organic material, turning it into compost.

"They do a lot of the magic," he said.

Fraser Richmond is not a waste management company but a compost and soil producer, Aujla explained.

"We're just facilitating what Mother Nature does best."

Last year, the company processed 235,000 tonnes of organic waste and produced 32,000 dump truck loads of compost, soil and mulch, according to the company's records.

Since Burnaby's food waste collection program was introduced earlier this summer, the city has noticed a decrease in garbage waste as well as a significant increase to the weight of the yard waste toters, according to Lambert Chu, the city's director of engineering.

Food waste is combined with yard waste in the toters for collection.

While the official numbers are not in, Chu estimates the amount of waste collected from the yard waste toters has increased by 10 to 15 per cent compared with last year.

The city is doing an audit in the fall, he said.

The food waste collection program for single and duplex homes started in June.

All food scraps, including bones, can be placed in the yard waste toters. The waste is picked up on a weekly basis, along with trash pickups.

Food-related waste, such as paper towels and pizza boxes, can be placed in the yard waste containers.

The city estimates that about 50 per cent of residential garbage is actually food waste.