The municipality of Summerland will receive provincial grant funding for expanding its current curbside garbage collection program to include residential food scraps.
The funding comes through the CleanBC – Organics Infrastructure and Collection Program.
The new collection program will help Summerland reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase diversion of residential organic wastes, work towards the province’s municipal solid waste reduction target of 350 kilograms per person per year, increase exposure and awareness of food waste prevention and prolong the life of the Summerland Sanitary Landfill.
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The municipality submitted a grant application in February 2021 to expand its residential organic waste curbside collection program to accept residential food scraps for both single and multi-family homes.
The separated organic materials will be composted for beneficial reuse at the Summerland Organics Processing Facility, scheduled for construction in 2022, located within the Summerland Sanitary Landfill.
Two-thirds of the facility’s costs, up to $1.58 million, were funded through the B.C. Organics Infrastructure Program, which the municipality received in 2019.
The collection changes will also receive 66-per cent funding, up to $451,639 out of the project’s estimated total cost of $743,000.
The funding will go towards program materials and implementation, such as the purchasing of additional curbside carts, kitchen catcher packages for all residents to use within their homes for collection of food scraps, development of communication and educational outreach packages and programs, and the initial distribution of these materials to residents.
“Proceeding with changes to our curbside collection program to include food waste in our organics green cart and remove it from our garbage waste stream is a step in the right direction for Summerland in many ways,” said mayor Toni Boot. “The diversion of residential food waste from burial in the landfill will reduce our environmental impact and makes financial sense for the entire community. Doing so will lower our greenhouse gas emissions, extend the life of the Summerland Landfill and create a new compost product for use within the community. We are delighted that our application has been selected to receive Provincial dollars for this important project.”
Municipal staff will now begin working through the initial stages of the project, with roll-out of the curbside collection changes for food scrap inclusion scheduled for 2023.
Once implemented, food waste will no longer be disposed of in the garbage, but collected in the green yard and garden waste carts for composting at the processing facility.
The municipality will provide public engagement opportunities as it progresses and has created a dedicated webpage at www.summerland.ca/organics for easy access to information and responses to questions the community may have regarding the Summerland Organics Processing Facility Project and the Summerland Residential Organic Waste Collection Project.
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