A company in Thunder Bay hopes to capitalize on what many people now throw in the garbage.

Eco Depot hopes to take compostable materials - such as such as garden waste and fruit and vegetable scraps - and turn them into dirt.

Project director Tammy Lehtinen said this could pave the way for municipal composting in many communities.

"We have been doing a number of presentations to local municipalities to seek out if there's an interest for this service," she said.

"There are a number of other jurisdictions in Ontario, as well as Canada, that are already operating these types of programs."

About 40 per cent of what goes into landfills is organic, she added. And, in some communities, that amount can be as high as 70 per cent. All of those organics can be composted and turned into soil

The City of Thunder Bay has plans to sort out organics, she noted, but that's a few years away from becoming a reality.

"That's something that they're exploring in the future," she noted.

"They're not quite positioned to roll something out like that yet. But it's definitely something that they're looking to do in the future."

The facility to create the soil would be located in Oliver-Paipoonge, and is hoped to be up-and-running buy the summer of 2016.

Lehtinen says there is also interest from the industrial sector in large-scale composting.