Building Trust and Diversion Rates from Alberta to Regina
How the Circular Innovation Council partnered with EcoSafe to turn ICI and multi-family organics pilots into measurable results
About the circular innovation council
The Circular Innovation Council (CIC) is a national circular economy organization (formerly the Recycling Council of Ontario), rebranded in 2020 to reflect a broader, coast-to-coast mandate. CIC's work spans policy advocacy, national and place-based research, and on-the-ground pilot projects, all aimed at moving materials out of a linear “use it and lose it” system and back into circular supply chains. The organization also convenes the circular economy community across Canada, including hosting the Canadian Circular Economy Summit.Much of CIC's pilot work focuses on food waste diversion in the ICI sector, helping businesses and institutions that don't typically have easy financial or logistical access to organics diversion systems get connected to ones that work.
The Challenge
Before partnering with EcoSafe, CIC's pilot projects consistently ran into the same barrier: it wasn't that ICI businesses lacked interest in diverting organics - it was that they lacked the capacity, knowledge, and hands-on guidance to do it well. Staff are stretched thin, turnover is common, and without consistent product and clear direction, contamination from non-certified “greenwashed” bags creeps in fast.CIC also needed a supplier who could work at the hyper-local level pilots require. Waste systems vary enormously by municipality and region, and a partner who simply drop-ships product isn't equipped to adapt alongside a pilot as it evolves.In 2026, that challenge took a new shape: a multi-family pilot in Regina. The City of Regina, preparing to roll out a 2027/2028 bylaw mandating organics diversion for the ICI and multi-family sectors, contracted CIC to design and deliver a six-month Food Waste Diversion Pilot Program ahead of that regulatory shift. The multi-family portion of the pilot involved two very different properties: College Park Condominiums, which needed a diversion system built from the ground up, and Wascana Park Estates, a 316-unit townhouse complex that was already diverting organics voluntarily but had a diversion system without adoption as the tenants weren't consistently using the infrastructure already in place.
WHY ECOSAFE ZERO WASTE
CIC's earlier ICI pilots in Ontario worked with a different supplier, and that arrangement was more of an in-kind branding contribution rather than a fuller collaboration. When CIC launched its first Alberta pilot in Strathcona County, they were looking for a smaller, Canadian-based company that shared their systems-change values. EcoSafe fit not just as a product supplier, but as a partner willing to provide the one-on-one support that busy ICI participants rarely get elsewhere.
THE SOLUTION
Across the Strathcona County, Edmonton, and Regina pilots, EcoSafe supplied:
Custom-branded indoor kitchen caddies
placed in industrial kitchens and front-of-house areas, often stamped with pilot branding and clear instructions on what belongs inside
At Wascana Park Estates, EcoSafe's toolkit anchored a full behaviour-change intervention delivered to every unit in the complex.
Each household received an 8-litre countertop kitchen caddy, a week's starter supply of EcoSafe BPI-certified compostable liner bags, a Regina-specific sorting guide covering all three waste streams, and a site map identifying all 12 waste areas across the property and which streams were available at each. CIC also included an introductory letter explaining the pilot and how to participate, and stocked EcoSafe bag dispensers at each centralized organics cart area so residents could restock liners and drop off food scraps in the same trip (a design choice aimed at removing friction from the habit). About two months into the pilot, a reminder postcard went out to all units reinforcing the program and proper sorting.
BPI-certified compostable liner bags
provided free for a set period at the start of each pilot, removing the upfront cost barrier and giving participants a reliable, certified alternative to standard plastic bags
Outdoor compostable bag dispensers
introduced for the first time in the Regina multi-family pilot, stocked with 300+ bags near communal organics bins so residents could grab a bag on their way out, then bring a fresh liner back to their unit
A multi-residential toolkit
with signage, explanations, and visuals of the bins and accepted materials that CIC was able to customize for its tenant-facing behaviour-change campaign while keeping EcoSafe's core educational content intact
Distributor hand-off support
at the end of each pilot, EcoSafe connects participants with local distributors so they can keep sourcing certified bags on their own, with no gap in supply
“We've been able to rely on EcoSafe not just for the quality of their products, but because they're excited for every pilot we launch. They're always ready to get in as a partner. It's been wholesome to work with an organization that shares our vision.”
The Results
The Regina multi-family pilot gave CIC its first true pre/post treatment study. Before the intervention, the property's four organics bins collected just 4 kilograms of food scraps which is typical for the site, according to the property manager. Three months after EcoSafe's bins, bag dispensers, and toolkit were introduced, that number rose to 60 kilograms at the same treatment sites, a roughly 15x increase, alongside a measurable drop in plastic bag contamination.
The results were compelling enough that the property is now looking into right-sizing its waste system entirely: more curbside organics bins, fewer bins for landfill-bound waste. CIC's post-pilot report quantifies just how much headroom that right-sizing could unlock. With 12 carts on-site, Wascana Park Estates has a projected annual diversion potential of 16,302 kg of food scraps - enough to avoid an estimated 2,200 kgCO₂e in emissions each year and to generate roughly 7,653 kg of finished soil amendment.
Across all three pilots combined involving roughly 40 small businesses and institutions, CIC with the help of EcoSafe tools have diverted approximately 175 tonnes of food scraps from landfill.
Beyond the products themselves, CIC points to a subtler benefit: because EcoSafe connects pilot participants with local distributors at the program's end, businesses keep diverting even after CIC's operational involvement wraps up, closing what could otherwise be a gap between a successful pilot and long-term habit change.
What's next
CIC continues to explore new pilot regions, with an eye on expanding into Montreal, and is building out a resource hub to help municipalities develop their own diversion roadmaps and bylaws. EcoSafe remains part of that future both as a potential pilot partner in new communities and as a source for CIC's own research and case studies on residential and non-residential organics diversion.