Close the Loop on Waste
Develop new sources of renewable wealth and eliminate harmful methane emissions with Zero Waste and circular economy strategies.
Table of Contents
The Rationale
In 2021, waste was responsible for around 1.4% of Alberta’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, primarily a result of organic materials decaying in landfills and producing methane. (Although the number may not seem big, it’s only because it’s dwarfed by oil and gas emissions.)
To reduce these emissions, many municipalities in Alberta—and other jurisdictions around the world—are using two key tactics: adopting a zero-waste perspective to curtail landfill-bound waste and exploring the benefits of a circular economy.
Vision: What does success look like?
2030: All municipalities in Alberta have adopted zero waste strategies and transformed their solid waste and material management systems to reduce methane by 30% below 2020 levels.
2050: All municipalities in Alberta are zero waste and zero methane and are experiencing multiple benefits from the implementation of circular economy practices such as reduced landscape and habitat disruption, improved biodiversity and a more diverse and thriving economy.
The Reality
Municipal solid waste landfills are a significant contributor to methane emissions, constituting approximately 23% of Canada’s total methane emissions and 4% of Canada’s total GHGs (Government of Canada, 2022). Progress in mitigating methane emissions has been uneven despite efforts by provinces, territories, municipalities, and the private sector, and emissions have not decreased for over a decade (Government of Canada, 2022).
Residential waste diversion and improved organic waste programs has made a difference: the amount of material being diverted from landfills in Canada increased from 22% to 26% between 2002 and 2018. However, most Canadian municipalities are still struggling to reach diversion targets and face challenges to effectively manage complex materials like source-separated organics (EREF, 2021).
Who Is Responsible?
Depending on the type of waste and how it is generated, transported, and processed, waste may be subject to one or more pieces of municipal, provincial, or federal legislation (Government of Alberta, 2023). In Alberta, the Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas is responsible for how waste and recyclables are managed. The Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (EPEA) is most relevant to waste and enables waste and recycling regulations. Within the EPEA, there are requirements via regulations, codes of practice, standards, guidelines, and resources to direct municipal waste management programs (Government of Alberta, 2023).
Federal Legislation, Programs, and Funding
In September of 2022, Canada released the Federal Methane Strategy, outlining strategies for reducing oil and gas methane emissions, including a 75% reduction from oil and gas methane. In April 2023, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) published a proposed regulatory framework to reduce methane emissions from landfills by 50% by 2030.
Canada has also introduced several strategies and initiatives to support the transition toward a closed-loop waste system, focusing on supporting remanufacturing (rebuilding a product back to its original manufactured form), plastic waste reduction, and introducing ‘right to repair’ legislation.
Provincial Legislation, Programs, and Funding
Alberta’s 2007 Too Good to Waste Plan provides a guiding framework for waste reduction and management, stating that 80% of material that is currently sent to municipal landfills can be recovered. Thus, it supports three main outcomes: Albertans taking responsibility for waste minimization, waste management systems providing capacity for processing or recovering materials that would otherwise be disposed of, and facilities and practices to manage wastes that are protective of the environment and human health.
Emissions Reduction Alberta has committed $58-million in Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) funding to support a Circular Economy Challenge in Alberta. The funding seeks a more diversified provincial economy and a reduction in the impacts of material production, processing, and disposal (Emissions Reduction Alberta, 2023). If these initiatives achieve their goals, they could lead to a combined reduction of up to 4 million tonnes of GHG emissions by 2050. Furthermore, they have the potential to generate 1,835 person-years of employment in Alberta and contribute to a $350-million boost in the province’s GDP by 2025 (Emissions Reduction Alberta, 2023). This investment is in line with various provincial efforts, such as the proposed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) approach, the agricultural plastics recycling initiative, and the objective outlined in the Natural Gas Vision and Strategy, which aims to establish Alberta as a hub for plastic diversion and recycling excellence.
Several non-profits are working on circular economy initiatives in Alberta. For example, the circular economy is a key focus area of Alberta Ecotrust’s Environmental Impact Grant program. The Recycling Council of Alberta is working with municipalities on the Circular Communities project to create opportunities to “design out” waste and conserve resources to transition to a circular economy. The project’s first phase (completed in 2020) involved consulting with communities and collaboratively developing unique roadmaps for how each community can begin to design their transition to a circular economy. The roadmaps for Banff, Lethbridge, Strathcona County, Edmonton, and Calgary can be found on the Recycling Council of Alberta’s website.
The Response
Getting started requires foundational steps to set your municipality up for the successful implementation of Local Actions, as suggested below.
Foundations: Understand your Waste Stream and Develop a Waste Management Strategy
A critical starting point for municipalities as they plan to close the loop on waste is to understand the composition of their community’s waste – its composition, volume, and properties – and develop a comprehensive waste management strategy with diversion targets. Municipalities can either do this on their own or in partnership with other municipalities in their region. A waste management strategy is a crucial step to ensure subsequent solutions reflect actual processing capacity and that policies, programs, and infrastructure are designed to effectively tackle specific waste challenges. This strategy can also underpin the transition to a circular economy by outlining policies and programs focused on preventing materials from becoming part of the waste stream in the first place. For some municipalities, a waste management strategy might also include how to redirect waste feedstocks – the material or substance that is used as a raw material in industrial processes or for energy production – to support production and innovations in the local economy.
Foundations: Take Time to Build Relationships and Partnerships
In the transition to a circular economy, fostering strong community relationships and economic partnerships is pivotal. Inviting enthusiastic and dedicated community and business leaders who share the circular economy vision to participate in the planning stage can make your plan more effective and enable successful implementation. These community champions can bolster buy-in within the municipality by helping community members understand the value of a circular economy and thus support projects as they roll out.
REFERENCE
The Local Actions
The following local actions have been identified in response to the information above, as well as best practice research, current available data related to waste in Alberta, and criteria such as how the actions reduce emissions and risk, support equity, their feasibility, and cost. These local actions may be designed and/or implemented on their own, or in combination with other community strategies and programs and are recommended for local governments to more toward low carbon resilience as efficiently as possible.
Local Actions Reference
Expand for descriptions of the four types of interventionsEmpower
Providing educational programs, training, grants, and resources that enable community-driven initiatives to empower local residents, community organizations, and businesses to take an active role in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Empowering local stakeholders fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility for climate action, ensuring that solutions are tailored to the unique needs and characteristics of each community. Empower also includes the education of staff and industry.
Incentivize
Implementing a range of financial and non-financial incentives to motivate individuals, businesses, and institutions to adopt climate friendly practices. This may include tax breaks, subsidies, and recognition for businesses implementing sustainable practices.
Require
Establishing regulations and bylaws to mandate or compel adherence to climate-conscious practices. Clear requirements help create a legal framework for a baseline level of environmental responsibility.
Partner
Forging partnerships with local businesses, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, neighbouring municipalities, and community organizations helps local governments leverage collective expertise, resources, and builds influence and buy-in for comprehensive climate action.
Local Action #1: Require source separation and build local or regional organics processing capacity
Municipalities can increase waste diversion and reduce the emissions associated with their community’s waste by requiring three-stream collection – recycling, organics, and landfill garbage. This is feasible for all residence types, in institutions, and across the commercial sector. Collection can be done through contracts with a private sector business, or even with several small ones. The following interventions can be customized where necessary for the community’s context and reflect best practice research to support the successful planning and implementation of a three-stream waste collection in Alberta.
Assess Organics Processing Capacity
A first step for municipalities is to assess the processing capacity needed to manage the expected increase in organic material and explore local or regional options depending on volume, needs, costs, etc. An assessment will inform decisions about which processing options make sense; a municipal-owned facility, private sector partnership, food cyclers, and/or backyard programs, etc. Some municipalities might consider transporting their organic waste to nearby processing plants (i.e., private or neighbouring municipalities). While this latter scenario has emissions implications, it may be a more viable and economical solution for smaller communities. Understanding processing capacity will also help make decisions that can extend the life of landfills by reducing the amount of waste. This can be a helpful communications tool because it will save residents and the municipality money over time.
- The cost of City of Lethbridge’s new Curbside Organics Project, including the construction of the facility was $10,629,000 with funding from the Governments of Canada and Alberta.
Employ Best Practices to Separate Waste at the Source
Strengthen enforcement with a clear bag policy and support education about how and why to divert organics, both internally with staff training and in public communications campaigns.
Support Backyard Composting and Waste Collection
Municipalities can take a first step toward full organics diversion by collecting yard waste like grass clippings, leaves, branches from trees and bushes, and fallen fruit from households twice a year. Municipalities can also keep yard waste on site by encouraging residential backyard composting and providing:
- Free or subsidized backyard composters,
- Composting coaching and education materials,
- Education on proper composting techniques in bear country (where applicable).
Explore Revenue Generation: When organic waste is processed it creates byproducts such as soil, and carbon offsets and these are potential revenue sources. Municipal governments can generate revenue by diverting organics through various methods, including:
- Collecting and diverting to aerobic compost
- Collecting and diverting to anaerobic digestion, which produces biomethane (waste to gas) and compost
- Processing organics for use as a supplemental agricultural nutrient source
- Using compost for city operations
Adopt and Implement an Organics Bylaw: Increase organics diversion by implementing an enforceable organics bylaw and modifying waste management bylaws to align with it. Best practice research shows that successful zero waste programs include the following elements:
- Introducing a green bin program for household food scrap collection.
- Introducing a mandatory organics and recycling program for all businesses and Industrial Commercial and Institutional (ICI) and Construction and Demolition (C&D) industries. In the City of Lethbridge, ICI and C&D sectors generate two-thirds of the city’s garbage. The City’s new mandatory business organic and recycling program aims to minimize this waste, and loads with more than 25% recycled or organics will pay a surcharge starting in September 2023.
- Adopting a bylaw requiring all properties, including multi-unit residential buildings, to divert organics. For additional information and case studies, refer to the following resource: Best Practice for Organics Diversion in Multi-Residential Buildings: A review of the literature.
- Ensuring organics diversion programs are available, accessible, and convenient for everyone. For example, the City of Edmonton provides an assisted waste collection service for customers who have difficulty getting their recycling or garbage to the curb.
Support On-Farm Composting: Rural municipalities should consider supporting farmers, ranchers, and landowners to learn more about the opportunities and benefits of on-farm. For more information, review the Recycling Council of Alberta’s Introduction to On-Farm Composting Guide.
Explore Partnerships with Private Companies: Partnering with private companies that collect organic commercial waste (for example garden centres during the growing season), is an opportunity to explore how compost could be reallocated to community gardens, municipal parks, or green spaces.
Curbside Organics Program
The City of Lethbridge recently unveiled a new organics processing facility that will help them reach their target of diverting 65% of residential waste from the landfill by 2030. The facility is expected to generate more than 13,000 tonnes of compost per year. Residents will be able to collect free compost at events during the year, and the remainder will be used in parks and sold to agricultural partners. The project cost $10,629,000 and was funded by the Government of Canada ($5,879,000) through the Canada Community-Building Fund for facility construction and the Government of Alberta ($4,750,000) from the Municipal Sustainability Initiative.
Organics AI Program
The City of Leduc’s Organics AI Program uses artificial intelligence (AI) to curb plastic contamination in organic waste bins. The project has been a success, leading to a significant decrease in contamination rates from 20% to less than 10%. Spearheaded by Leduc’s environmental manager, and powered by Regina-based Prairie Robotics, the program employs AI technology to identify contaminants, predominantly plastic film, in collected organics bins through real-time image analysis. Upon detection, residents receive personalized educational mailers with tips on proper waste sorting, facilitated by GPS-tagged bins, ensuring targeted outreach. Despite encountering minor challenges, such as persistent contamination in a small fraction of households, this approach has garnered widespread interest, with over 20 municipalities across North America adopting similar AI-driven waste management strategies.
Commercial Food Waste Bylaw
The Town of Canmore is instituting a mandatory commercial food waste bylaw in the fall of 2023. A voluntary food waste collection service has been in place since 2020, but only 1/3 of relevant businesses participated. To minimize organics sent to the landfill, the town is updating its Recyclables and Waste Bylaw to make it mandatory to collect food waste separately from commercial garbage. Other proposed updates to the bylaw include 1) every owner of a commercial premise shall provide for the separate removal of food waste from that premise, and 2) food waste will be banned from being placed into any garbage container at a commercial premise (Town of Canmore, 2023).
Area Integrated Solid Waste Management Program
The Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine planned, funded, and worked with stakeholders to develop a regional approach to waste diversion across a large region of coastal BC. The resulting Terrace Area Integrated Solid Waste Management Program integrates infrastructure, services, programs, and policies. Curbside collection and the construction of a commercial compost facility diverts organic material from the landfill and converts it into compost, resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions and less leachate. The system handled 1,363 tonnes of organic material in 2017, which reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2,044 tonnes.
Public Private Partnership for Long Terms Organics Processing Facility
Since 2018, the Regional District of Nanaimo has conducted a 20-year public-private partnership with Circular Waste BC for organics waste processing in the Vancouver Island municipality. As a result, Circular Waste BC will be able to generate a higher quality compost product. To meet the new demand, the facility will receive a $6-million upgrade and will gain increased capacity to process organics from other local governments and First Nations communities. This public-private partnership is contributing to Nanaimo’s goal of limiting solid waste disposal to 109 kg/person/year and will prolong the life of the existing regional landfill (Regional District of Nanaimo, 2020).
Local Action #2: Implement food rescue programs
Municipalities play an important role in addressing food waste through consumer education and providing practical solutions for waste reduction and management. The following interventions can be customized where necessary for the community’s context and reflect best practice research for how municipalities can implement food rescue programs in Alberta.
Data Collection and Analysis: Collect data on local food waste patterns to tailor educational campaigns and initiatives to the specific needs of the community. Analyze the effectiveness of different interventions through surveys and feedback mechanisms, adjusting strategies as needed. Assess assets, gaps, and need for food rescue infrastructure.
Raise Awareness and Provide Education: Inform consumers about the extent of the food waste issue and its environmental impact. Awareness and education campaigns should shift focus from merely highlighting the scale and impact of food waste to addressing its underlying reasons. For instance, cities can educate residents on the economic cost of discarded food, provide tools to encourage timely consumption of fresh produce, and share tips on efficient food preparation and storage to save both time and money. It can also be helpful to communicate how reducing waste that goes to the landfill also extends its lifespan and saves money down the road.
Support the Private Sector to Play a Role: Provide local grocery stores, restaurants, and food suppliers with information related to the business case for food waste reduction and provide support and/or incentives to businesses and entrepreneurs making use of surplus food/food waste.
Providing Funding and Programming: Develop municipal programs that incentivize food waste reduction and/or provide grants for food rescue-related infrastructure, staffing, and programs led by other sectors/actors.
Address Barriers to the Safe Donation of Food: Provide inspectors with training and tools to better integrate food donation issues into their work. Streamline and clarify health regulations that pertain to food donation to ensure food safety without imposing undue barriers to donation.
Develop Incentives: Food businesses can donate excess food rather than disposing of it.
Implement Regulations: Require food businesses to donate excess food rather than disposing of it and minimize barriers to safe food donation.
Engage with Schools and the Community: Work with community partners to organize workshops, webinars, or community events to enhance consumers’ skills in reducing food waste. Facilitate the creation of networks and partnerships to address gaps and needs and develop innovative partnerships and models where needed. For example, the Food Stash Foundation in Vancouver collects 120,000 pounds of food per month that would have gone to waste and delivers it to 35 charity partners and provides food boxes to over 100 households (source).
Food Rescue and Waste Diversion Pilot Program
The City of Calgary is partnering with the Circular Innovation Council to host a groundbreaking food rescue and waste diversion pilot program for the institutional, commercial, and industrial (ICI) sector. This innovative initiative, building on the success of a prior pilot in Guelph-Wellington County, aims to enhance waste collection efficiency while delivering significant social, environmental, and economic impacts. The program focuses on addressing affordability barriers to food waste diversion in businesses and organizations, aiming to reduce disposal costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and connect businesses with charitable agencies to redistribute fresh food that might otherwise go to waste. This collective effort, supported by local partners and private sector sponsors, seeks to reduce the carbon footprint in the ICI sector and was made possible through funding from the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Food Waste Reduction Challenge. The project responds to a critical need for food waste reduction and redistribution in a city where food waste constitutes a significant portion of garbage bin waste.
Love Food Hate Waste Campaign
Love Food Hate Waste is a behaviour change campaign that seeks to address and reduce avoidable household food waste. When households buy too much food, cook too much food, or don’t store food correctly, it generates avoidable food waste. This project is led by the National Zero Waste Council and partnered with the Recycling Council of Alberta, the City of Lethbridge and Strathcona County. The campaign will include in-person events, social media engagement, and advertisements to educate Albertans on food-saving tips and strategies. The education will explore food storage guidance and explanations for best-before dates, among other strategies for preventing food waste.
In the UK, where the campaign originated, 670,000 tonnes of food waste and 520,000 tonnes of packaging waste has been avoided across the UK since implementation. Avoidable household food waste was reduced by 5.3%, saving consumers 700 million pounds, local governments 20million a year in 2012, and amounted to carbon reductions of 930,000 t/CO2e per year (Love Food Hate Waste).
Local Action #3: Encourage deconstruction via a green demolition program
A deconstruction or demolition program, bylaw, or regulation has numerous benefits for municipalities, including rapidly reducing high-volume waste going to landfill, creating local jobs, fostering the growth of local salvage and recycling businesses, encouraging innovation in sustainable construction practices, and even improving the public perception of the municipality as they demonstrate commitments to sustainability. The following interventions can be customized where necessary for the community’s context and reflect best practice research for how municipalities can reduce demolition waste in Alberta.
Grow the Salvaged Materials Market: Identify and pursue options to support and grow the market for salvaged deconstruction materials (i.e., using municipal procurement to help build a salvaged and reused materials marketplace).
Support Developers: Incentivize developers to adjust their current processes to divert materials from the landfill, for instance, by providing deposit refunds only developers submit compliance reports proving demolition materials were recycled.
Implement a Deconstruction or Green Demolition Bylaw: The most effective way for municipalities in Alberta to reduce construction waste and its associated emissions is to require deconstruction. This refers to the systematic dismantling and salvage of building components for reuse or recycling, emphasizing sustainability and reducing environmental impact compared to traditional demolition methods.
Partner with Community: Work with local businesses and community organizations to identify opportunities to salvage surplus and used construction materials, and promote reuse, donation, repair, and sharing opportunities locally.
Environmental Deconstruction Program
The City of Lethbridge’s environmental deconstruction program is diverting 98% of building materials from landfill. Starting from a 55.4% diversion rate with the Bridge Inn Hotel demolition in 2006, the program has increased diversion to over 90% with subsequent demolitions. Salvaged materials such as boilers, light fixtures, security shutters, bathroom fixtures, doors, and even basketball equipment are being kept within the region. Hard building materials like concrete and asphalt are also being repurposed, amounting to 5.79 million kg of repurposed materials (Marks, 2021).
Demolition Waste Diversion Bylaw
The District of Squamish, BC, implemented the Demolition Waste Diversion Bylaw in 2021 to encourage the recycling, composting and reuse of divertible materials generated by demolitions. Under this bylaw, a refundable fee of $2 per square foot is paid along with the Demolition Permit Application. If at least 80% of the waste by volume is diverted from the landfill, the fee is refunded in full. For most demolitions, this can be achieved by diverting all wood, metal, drywall, and concrete. The Cities of Port Moody and Burnaby have similar refund processes.
Local Action #4: Endorse circular economy business models and implement practices that support a sharing economy
At least 80% of material currently sent to municipal landfills can be recovered (Government of Alberta, 2007).
Fostering a circular economy necessitates collaboration among all levels of government, businesses, and community organizations. Municipal governments, uniquely positioned to drive this transition, can leverage provincial and federal funding and programs, legal expertise, and policy levers to unite diverse stakeholders and design impactful programming. Through several strategic initiatives, municipalities can align circular economy principles with their economic development and environmental objectives, guiding projects from various departments to contribute to closing the loop on waste and diversifying the local economy. The following interventions can be customized where necessary for the community’s context and reflect best practice research for how municipalities can support circular economy practices in Alberta.
Support a Community Sharing Economy:
- Create a room-booking service for scheduling meeting rooms or event spaces that are sitting empty, for free or for a small fee.
- Create a network for sharing and recovering food in the community. This supports low-income residents and can help build social cohesion within the community.
- Offer grants to support or incentivize community sharing initiatives such as a tool library, vehicle sharing, or workshops teaching people how to repair used items.
- Develop apps that connect people with items, tools, and/or resources that they would otherwise throw out or larger items for rent.
Facilitate Sharing Economy Practices: Municipalities can provide incentives and tax breaks for circular businesses, review legislation to identify opportunities and reduce barriers to implementing circular economy principles, and advocate for changes to regional or provincial regulations.
Require Extended Producer Responsibility: In October 2022, the Government of Alberta announced that the province would be implementing an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) process, with the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (ARMA) serving as the oversight authority. EPR shifts the cost of recycling materials like packaging, paper products, single-use plastics, and hazardous and special products away from municipalities and everyday Albertans to the producers and manufacturers who supply those products into the marketplace. Producers must arrange to take over this responsibility from municipalities, meaning that recycling collection will soon be one less thing for municipalities to do. The costs for the recycling system will now be accounted for in the cost of a product—not in property taxes or utility rates.
Local Procurement Policy: Update municipal procurement policies to favour local businesses/provide subsidies for local businesses. For instance, the District of Saanich has a local food procurement policy that states where possible 40% of purchases shall be local.
Help Businesses Develop Circular Economy Practices: Municipalities can give a boost to local businesses by facilitating and supporting opportunity for businesses to share workspaces, accommodations, equipment, tools, transportation, and materials. They can also develop guidelines to help small and medium enterprises scale up and implement circular business models in strategic areas and provide financial support for businesses that integrate circular strategies in their supply chains or develop innovative solutions and local pilot projects.
Library of Things
The Town of Banff and the Banff Public Library partnered to open an equipment lending program in 2021. Banff and Lake Louise residents can borrow a variety of items that are rarely used, hard to store, or prohibitively expensive, such as power tools and hand tools, cooking appliances, automotive parts, and hobby items. The Library of Things helps reduce community-wide waste and consumption and contributes to social inclusion, accessibility, and affordability for members of the community.
Helpful Resources
- The Future of Waste: Edmonton’s 25-year Comprehensive Waste Management Strategy, City of Edmonton, AB
- Waste Management, Alberta Municipalities
- Strategic Waste Management Plan, Leduc County, AB
- Richmond Circular City Strategy, City of Richmond, BC
- Regional Waste Management Authority Contact List, Government of Alberta
- How circularity can contribute to emissions reductions in Canada, Canadian Climate Institute
- Getting to a Circular Economy: A Primer for Canadian Policymakers, Smart Prosperity Institute
- What is a circular economy? Overview, Key Ideas, Case Studies, Ellen Macarthur Foundation
Master Composter Recyclers
Master Composter Recyclers (MCRs) are skilled volunteers who influence friends, family, neighbours, and coworkers to take specific actions that reduce waste. MRCs undergo 35 hours of training in topics such as the basics of composting, changing waste behaviours, and indoor composting to educate residents and encourage composting.
Waste Diversion Policy
In 2015, the City of Lethbridge introduced a Waste Diversion Policy with waste diversion targets to help reach the city’s goal to cut community waste in half by 2030. The policy sets a target residential waste diversion rate of 65% and aims for a lower 45% waste reduction target for the industrial, commercial, institutional, and construction and demolition sectors. In 2019, the city announced it had reached a 35% diversion rate, representing 250 kg of waste per capita. The same year, a residential waste audit found that 57% of disposed materials disposed were organic waste. To address this, the city is focusing on introducing curbside organics collection.
Canada’s First Circular Food Economy
In the heart of Ontario’s Innovation Corridor, Guelph/Wellington is becoming a living lab for food innovation and sustainability. With a vision to become Canada’s inaugural circular food economy, Guelph/Wellington has set a transformative goal through the 50x50x50 by 2025 initiative. This plan aims to enhance access to affordable, nutritious food by 50%, establish 50 new circular businesses and collaborations, and increase circular economic revenues by 50%, valuing waste as a resource. To realize this vision, the region is undertaking nine strategic projects, including mapping regional food assets, creating a circular action plan, establishing a Circular Food Economy Lab, coordinating an impact fund, fostering new food economy skills, developing circular business tools, launching a “Re-imagine Food” awareness campaign, increasing the circularity of carbon offsets, and mapping the value of food by-products (City of Guelph).