By Pete McIntyre

City ramps up compost bin pilot project

Jan 29, 2020 | 5:10 AM

The city of Vernon is expanding efforts to divert organics from the landfill.

Council has approved moving to phase two of a compost bin pilot program which will see six compost bins located in the city for people to drop-off their food waste, from March to November 2020.

It will cost $27,000 for a company (Spa Hills Compost) to pick-up the organics, with funding coming from the city’s Climate Action Revolving Fund.

Laurie Cordell, manager of long range planning and sustainability, cautioned council in a report, that moving ahead with phase 2 would impact “the already constrained resources of the long range planning department, which currently is focused on the completion of the Climate Action Plan.”

That didn’t sway one councillor.

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“The reasons put forward for not accepting this is workload. I mean that’s why we have staff, is to do things. To say we can’t do something because of workload seems weak,” said Councillor Scott Anderson.

Anderson believes ultimately the city will have to look at door to door pickup for compost, but says more bins at this point, is a reasonable next step.

Councilor Brian Quiring says he supports the concept of the program, but adds city staff is “desperately” trying to complete its climate action plan by May.

“I can speak from experience that planning is unbelievably stretched right now, so I’m just a little concerned about timing. I’m concerned with workload, and other things will suffer like applications that are in the process,” said Quiring.

Councillor Dalvir Nahal says the program is “so popular,” and she would like to see it continue until something else is in place.

Mayor Victor Cumming says the city needs to divert organics from the landfill.

“We just need to find a method. This is one case where the community has been very enthusiastic so I think it makes sense to keep in front of what they’re suggesting,” stated Cumming.

A project proposal questionnaire estimates 394,625 kilograms of food waste and organics would be diverted from the landfill, which would result in the reduction of 158 tonnes of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.

City administration will be selecting the bin locations over the next few weeks. Once the bin locations and a schedule are determined, the city will let the community know and provide information about how to use the bins.

In the summer of 2019, the city conducted an organics collection pilot program with two bin locations to determine the level of interest from community members to compost household organic material. The program proved to be successful and showed that Vernon residents are passionate about diverting organic material from the landfill to reduce GHG emissions.

Once the six bins are placed for Phase 2, anyone can deposit their organic material in them. Acceptable materials include food scraps, paper and leaves and small amounts of garden trimmings. Glass, metal and plastic of any kind are not accepted. For more information on composting or residential pick up, please visit the Spa Hills Compost website at https://spahillscompost.ca/.

by Pete McIntyre

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