School District 43 will have to set aside $63,500 next year to pay for organic waste pick-up to meet Metro Vancouver's strict new ban against kitchen waste in the garbage.
The district has contracted with Progressive BFI to pick up organic waste from SD43 schools and facilities as part of a contract signed in November. The waste hauler will collect garbage and cardboard at all SD43 schools, and kitchen waste at schools in Coquitlam and Anmore, where the cities aren't doing the job.
"Next year, we will have a full year to see to costs," said Dave Sands, the district's energy manager, who is also overseeing school organic waste collection. This year, costs for organic waste collection until the end of June are expected to total $22,000 but Sands said he was able to absorb that in a budget for sustainability projects.
Costs for organic waste collection would be much higher if the school district didn't have arrangements with the cities of Port Coquitlam and Port Moody for pickup as part of a program that started in schools in those cities a few years ago.
Sands said he values the relationships with those cities and doesn't want to change anything, even if it means there are differences between schools in how organic waste is collected, stored and picked up.
THE LUNCH BUNCH
While many schools in Port Coquitlam and Port Moody have already been putting their lunch waste in collection bins, most Coquitlam school are just starting to do so after the Metro waste ban went into force Jan. 1. However, some schools don't have their steel bins yet, although they will soon, Sands confirmed.
Early indications are that schools are making an effort to separate food waste and even before the ban came into effect Jan. 1, more than half of schools in PoCo and PoMo were separating their waste - nearly 20% in Coquitlam - with secondary and elementary schools leading the way, "especially in the culinary arts programs," Sands said.
Custodians are also taking leadership, he said, noting that at his former elementary school in PoCo, a custodian kept track of how separating organic waste reduced the number of garbage bags.
In a presentation to trustees Tuesday, Sands said it's important that all schools buy in to the new system because the district could be fined up to 50% of tipping fees by Metro Vancouver if more than 25% of its garbage is found to contain organic waste. (In future years, allowable organic waste will be further reduced, likely to 10% in 2016.)
He also pointed out that garbage costs will drop as more organic waste is removed from the system but the district will have to pay extra until "there is balance in the system."
