A green waste composting facility at East Gate has offered at cost services to the City of Penticton and the regional district.
Mateo Ocejo, engineer with Net Zero Waste, gave a presentation and delivered the offer to Penticton's council on Jan. 28.
The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen had supported Net Zero in applying for grants to turn the former mushroom facility outside Eastgate back in 2021.
Since it got up and running, the facility processes about 15,000 tons of green waste, with a total capacity currently for 60,000 tons. Among the clients currently using its services are the city of Chilliwack.
The City of Penticton has worked with the RDOS to get a shared composting facility up-and-running on Greyback Road across from the Campbell Mountain Landfill, but construction on it has not yet begun and that project has put the district at odds with the Agricultural Land Commission.
Ocejo said that Net Zero would be willing to do a trial run that could start and stop whenever the city wanted to.
"All we're saying is we're already open, and we're already built so you don't need to worry about building a new facility right next to town that could cause odour or issues," said Ocejo. "We're not that far away when you move it in a bulk trailer like we have the ability to do, and we can give it to you at a cost that there's no way anybody can touch, because we had this grant money."
In addition to offering at cost processing for residential organic waste, which Ocejo said is about $50 a ton compared to rates around $135 that Metro Vancouver might pay, Net Zero is also offering to sell the compost back at low rates.
The facility is also OMRI certified which means its compost is fit for organic farming.
Ocejo invited councillors to come tour the facility and see the lack of odour and the quality of the compost it is producing.
Coun. Gilbert did express a concern over PFAS and the use of the Gore-Tex jackets that are used to sleeve the compost and prevent odour from escaping, which Ocejo reassured was not an issue.
"That's been a bigger issue with biosolids, because it ends up going into the sewage and ends up concentrating in the sludge," said Ocejo. "The fabric, the actual membrane of the Gore-Tex is laminated between other pieces of fabric and it's inert, it doesn't ever leave."
Net Zero is currently visiting other municipalities in the region and the RDOS to make the same offer to repay the support for the grant funding.