Metro Vancouver signs deal to compost kitchen scraps

Metro Vancouver announced Thursday it has signed a deal with a Richmond, B.C. company to expand a yard-waste collection program to include kitchen scraps.

The administrative body, whose duties include overseeing waste for most communities in the Lower Mainland, said at least ten municipalities will join the program by the spring of 2010.

According to a news release, Fraser Richmond Soil & Fibre Ltd. already processes 100,000 tonnes of yard waste for Metro Vancouver. The extended service will take kitchen scraps including coffee grounds, grains, fruits and vegetable waste, and even soiled papers, pizza boxes, meat and dairy. Residents will add the material to containers usually used for yard clippings for curbside collection.

The compost facility will heat the refuse and churn it into a dense, dark soil, which it will sell for use in gardens across the Lower Mainland. The process generally takes about 12 weeks.

Marvin Hunt, chair of Metro Vancouver's waste committee, said it's a way of curbing global warming.

"The organics is a very large portion of what's currently going into our waste stream — into landfills," Hunt said. "We want to get that out because that's what produces methane — that's what contributes to greenhouse gases."

According to Hunt, the deal will dispose of  50,000 tonnes of organic waste — about three per cent of the waste produced in the Lower Mainland each year. Funding from other levels of government could expand the program.

Each municipality is responsible for deciding when they will start curbside composting.

Port Coquitlam has had a curbside composting program since June, 2008.

Carole Savage, a resident of Port Coquitlam where a curbside composting program has been in place since June 2008, said her family now sends much less garbage to the landfill.

"The big issue is the landfills. We need to fix that problem, and everyone needs to do their part," Savage told CBC News.