151 replies to this topic

[Matt R.]

If Foundation/Organico dropped the ball and this and did a poor job of executing the messy bits, what does an established and successful compost pick up company like reFuse have to say?

Were they ever given a shot at the contract, or did the union get in the way?

Matt.

[Arnold]

Here we go again. It would appear that the CRD has decided that the composting facility will be built at Hartland along with the sewage sludge incinerator.

 

Here goes another bag of million$ spent before having a meaningful discussion with the community.

 

https://www.crd.bc.c...d-land-transfer

[Sparky]

It's official. I am now enthusiastically opting out of the kitchen scrap fiasco.

 

I made the grave mistake today of passing by that cute little green bin, and after screaming ..." Oh my Christ ! "...  from a good distance away, I couldn't resist taking a peek inside this yak factory. (mistake #2)

 

This must be the most medically unsound program ever devised by a human being.

 

You just can't store this crap in the hot summer sun for weeks on end and expect any result but bad.

 

I toughed it out and loaded up the truck with this "active waste" and took it to D&L bins. Before you start hollering at me, that is the same place my municipality takes it. (just not often enough for my liking). After unloading this scientific disaster, I threw my gloves in after it. I then went to the car wash and seriously thought about leaving the windows down.

 

The genius that thought up this silly plan should be shot with a ball of his own compost.

[sebberry]

I was house sitting recently and I had a similar reaction when I opened up the little green bin to find several flies starting out their lives as maggots. 

 

Out into the back yard it went for a bleaching and a hose-off. 

[Sparky]

^ That smell would gag a maggot.

[Gary H]

I wiser long term solution might be to just dump all non-recyclable garbage at the landfill and then collect the methane to produce electricity.  This is being done successfully at the Miramar landfill in San Diego.  Half the electricity for the adjacent Marine Corps base is supplied by the plant and the rest is sold back to the grid.

 

 

http://www.kpbs.org/...s-methane-ener/

[Holden West]

I've had a similar experience. I opened the lid one day only to find that Lucifer Himself had chosen my bin to be the Entrance to the Gaping Maw of Eternal Damnation. The very gates of Hell had found its mortal portal in my front yard. Beelzebub bellowed his unearthly howl upon seeing my horror-filled reaction to the unholy contents of my green bin. God have mercy on the unwitting souls that have to barge this infernal mess to its destination.

 

I know a way to help is to keep the bin out of the sun and to keep as much of the nasty stuff, like meat, labelled in the freezer until garbage day. 

[Coreyburger]

I wiser long term solution might be to just dump all non-recyclable garbage at the landfill and then collect the methane to produce electricity.  This is being done successfully at the Miramar landfill in San Diego.  Half the electricity for the adjacent Marine Corps base is supplied by the plant and the rest is sold back to the grid.

 

Garbage to methane to electicity.png

 

http://www.kpbs.org/...s-methane-ener/

 

Hartland has done this for years...

[Mike K.]

It's revolting.

The green bin has sat unused at my place since the temps rose. Ain't no way in hell I'll be putting up with that stench for half the year.

[sebberry]

Hartland has done this for years...

 
Indeed they have, here's the plant:
 

8 by sebbles1, on Flickr

[sebberry]

It's revolting.

The green bin has sat unused at my place since the temps rose. Ain't no way in hell I'll be putting up with that stench for half the year.

Is it really much worse than the garbage though?  I mean it should be the same amount of the same stuff sitting around for the same duration whether you separate it or not. 

[VicHockeyFan]

Is it really much worse than the garbage though?  I mean it should be the same amount of the same stuff sitting around for the same duration whether you separate it or not. 

 

But you bag the garbage, usually small bags, into big bags.

[sebberry]

You can get little bags for the kitchen scraps too. 

[G-Man]

Yup I used them. The are biodegradable.

[jonny]

I've said it before, but I think garbage disposals are just wonderful. Probably 90+% of our organic waste goes down the garbage disposal.

 

Composting in an urban environment is pretty gross. Are the compost bins picked up weekly? My garbage is picked up weekly and even then it gets pretty gross with what little organic stuff we do put in there.

[Mike K.]

You can get little bags for the kitchen scraps too. 

 

Yeah, but why pay for that stuff? And besides, they break rather easily and contents spill out.

 

The smell is similar to rotting fecal matter. And that's putting it very mildly.

[VicHockeyFan]

So there is a landfill in Oregon that has a life expectancy of over 144 more years.  It takes garbage from Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Canada.

 

http://wmnorthwest.c...lumbiaridge.htm

 

I don't know why this is considered an issue.

 

Ya, it might not be the most efficient, but why not ship our stuff there?  It's in the middle of nowhere, and has rail and road access.

 

I mean Bernard has shown us here how cheap it is to ship by rail.

[Mike K.]

It's all optics.

This is a region that feels it should be an "intervenor" for plans to ship more Canadian oil to markets around the world and our municipal candidates think they can affect climate change through their policies. Sending garbage off-Island would be the cop-out of the millennium.

Of course what you propose makes sense, but this is la la land (that nobody off the Island takes seriously and yet we have such an ego we think we're world class). Just look at the poor sap running Saanich, the largest municipality on the Island, who has been trying for a whole year to have coffee with a minister who hasn't so much as responded to a single one of his texts. World class, hey?

[sebberry]

Seattle imposes fine for too many food scraps in the garbage

 

(Reuters) - Seattle residents who throw too many pizza crusts, coffee grounds and uneaten leftovers in their regular garbage will now face a fine, in one of the toughest mandatory composting efforts in the country, officials said on Tuesday.

 

The Seattle City Council voted on Monday to impose a $1 fine on residents each time they fill more than 10 percent of their home garbage with compostable waste, such as food scraps and paper products. Repeat offenders could see the fine increase to $50.

 

[...]

 

http://www.reuters.c...N0HI2EF20140923

[Mike K.]

Washington State is also looking to tax individuals for the mileage they cover each year with their vehicles. Just another effort to tax the middle class into oblivion and defer movement away from urban centres. It's nuts.