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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • OCTOBER 2017


Islanders weigh benefits of new composting facility


by SEAN MCINTYRE SALT SPRING – A new


report suggests more government help is needed for Salt Spring Island residents to find an “on-island” answer for their steady supply of organic waste. “Efforts to improve the


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organic-waste management system on Salt Spring are disjointed, but it's clear that there's a willingness to co-operate and collaborate,” reads part of a study the island's Organic Waste Working Group (OWWG) commissioned. Individual actions and small-scale solutions are not enough. “To meet challenging


environmental goals, a larger solution is needed at the community or regional level.” The September report,


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dubbed The Ins and Outs of Organic Waste, follows six months of talk among OWWG members about how to set up a local composting facility. According to the document, approximately 500,000 kgs. of kitchen scraps, wood waste and cardboard is hauled off the island by truck and ferry every month. Conversely, approximately 2.5 million kgs. of soil amendments such as compost and topsoil are transported and sold on the island annually. Jane Squier, a local farmer and OWWG


High school teacher Mark Kilner is part of a committee hoping to bring hightech composting to Salt Spring Island. SEAN MCINTYRE PHOTO


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member, says finding a way to reuse more of the organic waste produced by islanders is “the right thing to do” because of the economic and environmental implications of shipping material to and from the island. The predicament became especially


apparent, she says, following regulations enacted in 2015 that prohibited disposal of kitchen scraps in regular trash bound for the Capital Regional District's Hartland landfill. Kitchen scraps generated by the island's approximately 10,000 residents account for about half of Salt Spring's organic waste. Squier says the OWWG seeks to develop an


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integrated organic waste management system that is efficient, effective and well suited to the local community. Team members from the public, private and institutional sectors want a system to generate reusable end products such as compost that could be used by local farmers and gardeners. She says the committee hopes the project will offer local employment and serve as a model to help other isolated communities across the province reduce their carbon footprints.


Long time coming


The search for a composting facility on the island dates back nearly a decade to the publication of Salt Spring's 2008 Area Farm Plan. Efforts to keep organic materials on island and support agricultural activities have thus far produced several reports but no commitments. Work has, however, started at Salt Spring's Gulf Islands Secondary School, where culinary arts teacher Mark Kilner and his students have set out to buy a $55,000 “super composter.” The school currently has two composting barrels that are each roughly the same size as a 40-gallon drum. These relatively small units are unable to keep up with the school's 25


kilograms of daily compostable waste, Kilner says. The shortcoming means the school must ship leftover organic waste off-island through a private waste management firm at a cost that can reach upwards of $300 per month. “My dream is to have [a larger composting


unit] here,” he says. “I think it's going to happen, but it's going to take time.” Kilner, who is also a member of the OWWG, is in talks with the Gulf Islands School District to install the mechanical composter, which can handle approximately 800 pounds of waste per week. He and his students plan to use funds raised by selling meals through a popular salad trailer developed by the culinary arts program to help pay for a portion of the project. The school's existing composters could be used by other schools in the district to teach more students about the process, he adds.


“Educating kids at an early age is so


important because I'm finding that many kids and teenagers don't really know how to recycle or what is compostable,” he says. “With an island this size, we really have to be aware of where our waste and our compost is going. This is Salt Spring; something like this should already be in place given that we have this reputation and expectations.” Backers of the island-based composting


project have reason to celebrate increased government involvement following a September vote by the Capital Regional District's Environmental Services Committee to consider Salt Spring Island a sub-region within its resource management strategy. The decision could be the missing ingredient to finally solve Salt Spring's organic waste predicament. “Our next step is to secure funds for a study to determine the best fit regarding technologies for managing our waste streams in a sustainable and economically viable manner,” Squier says.


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