New Aylmer project

Bicycle collection of green waste from businesses

Pédale au Composte (PAC) is a community project that aims to recover green waste from businesses and organizations in Aylmer with the help of a new bicycle collection system. The waste collected by volunteers will then be transformed into compost by the North Collective Garden team, which will be used to fertilize its crops.

The initiative has its roots in a need for compostable material to meet the needs of the North Collective Garden.

With the help of financial contributors such as the Gatineau Green Fund, Enviro Éduc-Action, the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, the Desjardins Hull-Aylmer caisse and Métro Kelly, the project was able to increase its ambitions by expanding its compost storage space and purchasing 3 Joracan composters. 

Joracan composters speed up the composting process and reduce the time period or the amount of composted products that emit odours.

The project seeks to take concrete action to divert food materials from landfill, while promoting cycling, organic gardening and local management of green waste.

The PAC team is always looking for volunteers who want to participate in weekly bike clinics or substitute volunteers to replace regular volunteers in the event of illness, absence or emergency. 

The team is currently composed of a dozen volunteers who do one or two weekly collections.

Equipped with bicycles with a trailer attached, the volunteers collect 20-litre buckets of waste from a dozen different suppliers throughout the city of Aylmer. In total, Luc Prud’homme from Pédale au Composte estimates that about forty buckets of waste are collected per week.

The collection schedule is held at the same time as the North Garden time slots, which are  

- Tuesday evening from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

- Wednesday morning from 9 am to 12 pm

- Thursday evening from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

- Saturday and Sunday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm

Prud’homme says the group hopes to have a first big chore of mature, ready-to-use compost “by the fall,” but says it doesn’t worry if the process takes longer.

It also ensures that all fertile compost in excess of project needs will be sold in order to better subsidize the group’s resources as well as composting workshops with the community.

For more information about the project, please contact us at pedaleaucompost@gmail.com.