By Hugh Kerr
Published: May 21, 2015
For the past four years Squamish Climate Action Network (Squamish CAN) has teamed with the District to take on the challenge of Zero Waste. Our community is making big gains in the right direction. The annual Reuse It Fair is one of their many projects that divert waste from the landfill. This year’s fair will be May 23rd at Brennan Park.
Waste audits at our landfill found that more than 40% of it is organic matter. So Squamish CAN began a second project to educate both Council and the public about getting organics out of the landfill.
0n May 4 an enthusiastic group filled the Adventure Centre to watch a movie about garbage – or, more politely, waste. The event was organized by the “Zero Waste” committee, spearheaded by Squamish CAN. The movie, “Just Eat It”, documents a Vancouver couple living for a year on food “waste”, spending only $200 for their year’s food. In the US the total food waste value is estimated to be one trillion $. About half of it is from consumers; fruit and vegetables, “old” bread, half-filled yoghurt, cottage cheese, etc. Stores throw out about 10% of total food waste; at “best before” date, wilted or over ripe produce, unpopular items. (The couple found a cache of chocolate bars, printed only in French.) We reject produce with small blemishes. Farmers also “waste” food: blemished fruit, parts of vegetables – such as celery – cut off at the farm because consumers will not buy it. Where does that waste go ? Most goes into landfills: dumpsters from stores, garbage bags from us. This raises prices at stores and fills “landfills”.
Landfills are very expensive. No longer can municipalities just dig a hole and fill it with garbage. Chemicals leach from dumps and pollute streams and aquafers. Recently Squamish spent $ 5 million modernizing our landfill: putting liners in to prevent leakage and diverting it to the waste treatment plant, improving the transfer area, and other improvements. Diverting organics (food scraps, etc) from the landfill will extend its life. Our organics waste will make excellent soil, helping farmers and gardeners in the District. Deeply buried garbage also produces methane, a gas which is much worse than carbon dioxide as a “greenhouse gas”. Transforming it to soil prevents methane production.
Squamish CAN has been working behind the scene since 2010 to make us a greener community. The Reuse It Fair began after the original Squamish CAN leader, Ana Santos, went to watch “Free Dump” Day, and was horrified at the “junk” thrown away. It’s estimated that our Reuse It Fair diverts about 90 tons of stuff from the landfill each year. Many in Squamish look forward to it – to get rid of stuff, or acquire things they need: bikes, furniture, clothes……. This year it’s on May 23 at Brennan Park, starting at 9 am. Come and enjoy.
