Saanich has reached a deal to ship thousands of tonnes of kitchen scraps over the Malahat to Cobble Hill for processing.
A report going to Saanich councillors recommends the municipality enter into a $4.85-million, five-year contract with D.L. Bins (Fisher Road Recycling) for processing of 8,000 to 11,000 tonnes a year of food scraps.
Saanich’s food scrap collection is due to begin in the spring. Under the draft agreement, D.L. Bins will take possession of organics at its existing transfer station in the Keating Industrial area and then truck the material to Cobble Hill for processing.
Going out of the capital region wasn’t Saanich’s first choice, but was a compromise reached after an agreement to have scraps processed at Michell Brothers Farm in Central Saanich fell through, said Mayor Frank Leonard.
“The first choice really was a great fit for us, but obviously not for the vendor and not for his neighbours. So this is a compromise but it’s in the ballpark of what we want to accomplish. Certainly I would have preferred to have seen it local and stay local and not have the trucking and so forth,” Leonard said.
Saanich councillors also will be asked to approve $5 million in borrowing bylaws — $2.4 million for new garbage trucks and $2.6 million for the purchase and assembly of 65,000 waste bins for the new garbage and food scrap collection system.
Saanich had reached a five-year, $4.7-million deal with Michell Brothers to process food scraps. Michell Brothers had planned to invest upward of $1.25 million in a system to turn scraps into compost for its farm fields, but backed out because of controversy surrounding the nearby Foundation Organics composting facility.
Foundation Organics, the only licensed composting facility in the capital region, was handling food scraps from Oak Bay, Victoria and View Royal this summer. The Capital Regional District suspended its interim contract and recycler licence after hundreds of complaints about odour and litter. The CRD is now shipping those organics to Fisher Road.
CRD staff anticipate that by 2015, when the region’s ban on food scraps at Hartland landfill kicks in, 30,000 tonnes of scraps a year will be collected locally.
But finding local processors has been difficult. Some CRD directors want the CRD to establish its own facility at the landfill and look at synergies between processing food scraps and sludge that is to be pumped to Hartland from a new sewage plant.
Directors are to receive a report on options this month.
The CRD board this week approved an $85,000 upgrade and expansion of the kitchen-scraps transfer station at Hartland. The board has also decided to delay implementing a surcharge on loads containing food scraps that had been due to begin Jan. 1.
Leonard said Saanich doesn’t have time to wait for the CRD to sort out processing options.
“We’re looking at a five- year [contract], and I actually think looking at the CRD decision-making process, them being up and running in five years would be optimistic,” Leonard said.
“I think the commitment to food waste composting by some of my colleagues at the CRD is not what it should be. I, personally, think some of them would postpone the whole thing indefinitely. And I believe our community wants to divert this waste and compost it, with or without a ban from the CRD, because they see it being the right thing to do.”
