The Village of South River is being asked to consider taking part in a pilot program to reduce food waste at its landfill site and at the same time create a rich, nutrient soil that has multiple uses.
The request comes from Ottawa-based Food Cycle Science which helps municipalities across Canada divert food waste from their landfills.
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Jacob Hanlon, the company's Municipal Program Co-ordinator, told South River town council as much as 63 per cent of food waste can be diverted from landfills. He said diverting that much food waste saves the municipality money because there is less waste to haul to the landfill. And with less food buried at a landfill, the site will last many years longer.
Hanlon says the additional benefit is that with not as much food rotting at a landfill, fewer greenhouse gases, like methane, are generated.
Hanlon said the company is able to compost household food waste with its FoodCycler, an electrical in-home appliance that turns food waste into soil in four to eight hours. The unit is about the size of a bread machine and each cycle to turn food waste into soil takes 1 to 1.5 kilowatts of power which is about the same amount of energy to power a home computer.
The resulting soil is the equivalent of a fertilizer with high nutrient values and has several uses. Hanlon says as an example, the newly created soil can be put in an existing garden or added to a compost pile.
Hanlon says the company has two FoodCycler models, the FC 30 which has a 2.5 litre capacity for food waste and the FC Maestro which can handle five litres of food waste.
Because many foods contain a lot of liquids, Hanlon says the FoodCycler reduces food waste by 90 per cent in terms of weight and volume.
As for the type of food waste the units can hold, Hanlon says they can compost meat, poultry, dairy, small bones, and fish in addition to fruit and vegetable waste. Hanlon says this exceeds what people typically put in their backyard composters.
Hanlon isn't critical of backyard composting but says they have their limits as to what they can hold without attracting animals like bears and raccoons looking for food. He says this isn't a problem for FoodCycler units even if they are in a garage because they don't emit any food odours.
For several years Food Cycle Science has been promoting itself as a solution to food waste.
It has completed pilot programs in more than 40 municipalities involving more than 4,700 homes across Canada in small and rural communities. Hanlon says “The results are overwhelmingly positive.”
He cited Nelson, British Columbia as a community that has embraced the FoodCycler technology.
“After two successful pilot programs they are putting a FoodCycler in every home in a city of 11,000 people,” Hanlon told council.
Hanlon says the length of a pilot period is 12 weeks.
Homeowners with a FoodCycler track the amount of food waste that goes into the unit during that period and afterward fill out a survey that evaluates the program's success. Food Cycle Science gives the data to the municipality that it can use when making future decisions on waste management or to become even more involved with the company by expanding the program locally.
When taking part in a pilot program, Food Cycle Science asks municipalities to absorb $100 of the cost of each unit. Food Cycle Science also subsidizes the cost of each unit and applies a federal government grant to further bring down the cost to consumers. The end cost to homeowners is $150 for the FC 30 or $300 for the FC Maestro. The homeowner keeps the unit at the end of the 12-week pilot.
The FC 30 has a lifespan of 5 to 7 years while the FC Maestro can last 7 to 10 years.
Mayor Jim Coleman found the FoodCycler interesting but said the municipality would have to survey community members before buying into the program.
Coleman asked if a demo model could be sent to the town hall to see firsthand how the unit works and Hanlon said that was doable.
Hanlon further said if South River becomes part of the pilot program, it would have to accept 50 units as a minimum and Food Cycle Science is there to troubleshoot any of the units in the homes of the users.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the North Bay Nugget. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.