Composting
Let’s Talk Trash values the highest use of food possible. While composting is admirable, edible food should go to people first. Inedible food scraps can be fed to farm animals. What remains can be composted.
Avoiding food waste by purchasing wisely and storing food properly to increase its longevity is the first priority. Find great tips at LoveFoodHateWaste. Learn more about food waste by watching the documentary Just Eat It where a Vancouver couple lives off food ‘waste’ for 6 months.
If food waste can’t be avoided:
FEED PEOPLE FIRST. Can you donate surplus food to those in need?
THEN FARM ANIMALS. Do you know a farmer that might appreciate your harvest of windfall fruit?
Contact Skookum Food Provisioner’s Cooperative to learn about their fruit tree gleaning program.
Wildlife should never be fed. Leaving a pile of windfall fruit in the forest is a sure fire way of attracting more bears closer to our community. Often times a fed bear is a dead bear.
THEN SOIL. Compost in your backyard or donate to the compost pilot project bins.
Backyard composting is the most environmentally friendly way to dispose of discarded food scraps and yard waste. Setting up a home composting system will also greatly reduce the need to visit the depot and reduce trash by up to 40%.
Visit the Backyard & Home Composting page for more information on backyard composting.
Let’s Talk Trash hosts free workshops, including some on composting. Email us for more information at LetsTalkTrashTeam@gmail.com
For residents or businesses unable to backyard compost, there is a local community composting pilot program- Community Organics Recovery Exchange (C.O.R.E.). This free program is available to both residents and businesses and includes diversion of food scraps and yard waste.
Inquire with us about the annual Invasive Plant Free Disposal Event
View our Residential or Commercial/Business composting pages for detailed information. For information on how the pilot came to be, you can review our Compost Advisory Committee page.
Find detailed information for:
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Garburators: Solution to Food Scraps?
You wouldn’t flush organic fertilizer down the drain….or would you? Well, this is exactly what happens when we send our food scraps down the drain via a sink garburator. It is taxing the sewers and leading to more maintenance issues. Food scraps are rich in nitrogen as well and when added to the waterways reduces available oxygen necessary for a healthy eco-system (an issue known as eutrophication). Read about why Squamish is considering banning garburators and read about garburators in this Powell River Peak article.
Good news? You can keep this valuable resource in your community by:
- sharing your food scraps with a neighbour who compost,
- Learning how to compost. There are many local experts in such methods as: Converted Freezer Composter, Worm Bin, Speedi Bin, Bokashi Fermentation, Green Cone, and Pile Composting. Contact LetsTalkTrashTeam@gmail.com to learn more.