School District 43 is already almost halfway towards meeting Metro Vancouver's ban on food waste in garbage and will be 100% ready when school resumes after the winter break.
Schools in Coquitlam are the last to take part in an organic recycling program that has been ongoing in Port Coquitlam and Port Moody schools for almost five years. Bins are now being delivered to elementary, middle and secondary schools in Coquitlam, said Dave Sands, the district's manager of energy and sustainability, and Progressive Waste Solutions will be collecting it.
"We've been preparing through pilot schools in Coquitlam, done presentations, visited schools and helped with implementation," Sands said. "We're at the place where most schools are ready to go for January, we're just waiting on some logistics on bins on certain schools."
With PoCo and PoMo schools already separating their food waste from garbage, a behaviour that is reinforced at home, where organic recycling has been ongoing for some time - PoCo pioneered it in Metro Vancouver - Sands doesn't expect any issues with ramping up the program in Coquitlam over the next several weeks.
"Overall, it's the socially responsible and the right thing to do, and that's being promoted everywhere."
