The Columbia Shuswap Regional District is looking to build a composting facility that would process all the yard and garden waste it collects from the community.
The Electoral Area Directors (EAD) Committee approved $300,000 in funding from gas tax monies to build facilities in Revelstoke and Golden at its meeting last Thursday.
According to Ben Van Nostrand, the CSRD’s waste management coordinator, the CSRD landfills manage about 3,000 tonnes of yard and garden debris annually. It is currently chipped and used as road fill around the site.
The new facility would be located at the current landfill site and “will allow us to create a compost that we can distribute back to the public,” he said.
A similar composting facility in Salmon Arm was just built and will be going into operation soon.
According to CSRD staff, the facility will help remove organic waste from the landfill, thereby extending its life.
Does this mean food waste composting is in the cards? Van Nostrand said that was part of the long term plan of the CSRD but the proposed facilities would be built to process yard and garden waste only.
“I think that is the next phase of our plan now that we have curbside recycling in place and yard and garden composting coming online,” he said. “Food waste would be the next big one.”
The EAD voted in favour of the expenditure but asked that staff contact the municipalities to see if they could support the project financially.