Powell River Regional District’s composting advisory committee has hired a company to conduct a feasibility study for a centralized composting facility.
The committee chose Net Zero Waste, one of seven proponents that responded to a request for proposals issued last fall. Two consultants from Net Zero Waste will work with the committee and Sean McGinn, the regional district’s community services manager, to evaluate technology options, site location assessments and financial implications of a composting facility. The total cost for this project is less than $20,000, with the costs coming from the solid waste management fund for contracted services.
Net Zero Waste is based out of Vancouver and has experience on the Lower Sunshine Coast and in the Lower Mainland. Mateo Ocejo, from Net Zero Waste, met with the composting advisory committee on February 1 to present various composting technologies and to query committee members on their intentions for local or centralized composting of kitchen organics.
BHC Consulting, which has been contracted by the regional district to deliver a waste management public education program and has created the Let’s Talk Trash Team for this project, gave Ocejo a tour of local possible sites and visited the transfer station at Augusta Recyclers Inc. “Site location will be critical to ensure the success of a local facility adopted by the community,” said Ocejo.
According to a waste audit in 2009, more than 33 per cent of the region’s waste stream being shipped to Washington State is composed of kitchen organics and an additional eight per cent consists of compostable materials including paper, wood, leaf and yard waste. “Reducing our waste export costs by locally composting these materials and producing a saleable Class A compost has the potential to greatly decrease our total waste management costs, which are currently running close to $170 a ton,” said Coco Hess, of the Let’s Talk Trash Team.
Eleven community members sit on the composting advisory committee, which will be making a recommendation to the regional board later this spring, based on the results of the feasibility study and community input. Members of the committee will be taking a tour with Net Zero Waste to regional composting facilities on the Lower Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island later this month to assess composting technologies and learn about similar programs.
Interested readers who would like to provide input on a composting solution for the community should contact the Let’s Talk Trash team at letstalktrashteam@gmail.com. The team has been facilitating the meetings and will take all feedback on this proposal to the next committee meeting.
