Region of Waterloo Waste Management is reaching into the future to meet the green bin demand of the present.

The region plans to spend $280,000 from its 2018 waste management budget to order 20,000 more of the bins.

“That should last us for a little bit over a year,” says Sue White, the region’s manager of waste collection and diversion.

In a typical year, the region gives out about 4,000 of the bins, which are used for organic waste. Between green bin pickup being rolled out to the townships and garbage pickup being cut back to once every two weeks, this year has been anything but typical.

More than 30,000 of the bins have already been distributed this year. While tens of thousands of replacements were ordered once the high demand became clear, White says the current supply will likely only be enough to meet demand for a couple months.

Carlos Pereira has a good idea of how high that demand is. Thursday marked his third trip to Waterloo to pick up a green bin for his family – and the first time he had been able to obtain one.

Pereira said the cutbacks in garbage collection had prompted his decision to start using a green bin.

“I think it’s the right approach to reduce waste,” he said.

Janice Fleischmann, who lives in Waterloo and had a green bin out at the curbside on Wednesday, said it had been a “very easy” transition to using the bin.

“I have noticed that our trash is way down,” she said, estimating that her family puts out one garbage bag every two weeks.

Waterloo Region’s green bin organics program began operating throughout Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge in 2010.

With reporting by Marc Venema