An organic waste diversion program could be coming to the Trail, Rossland, Warfield, Monstrose and Fruitvale areas. The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) has agreed to partner with the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) for the program that looks to build a facility at the Central Landfill near Salmo.
This new partnership means that RDKB member municipalities in the McKelvey Creek Wasteshed would need to be ready and willing to begin curbside organics collection programs by 2022 when the planned organics processing infrastructure will be constructed and operational.
Board Chair for the RDKB, Rolly Russel, describes it as a win-win-win.
“The amount of money that we have to set aside in order to kind of plan for long term closure on landfills as they get fuller and fuller is enormous and tax payers pay that, so the longer we can divert our stream and make those landfills last, the better.”
He says the program has been successful so far in parts of the Boundary, for example Christina Lake and Grand Forks.
“I think the initial data was that they were saving about 40 per cent of the weight of the landfill garbage when organics diversion was implemented, so that’s a massive reduction.”
There are still many operational and cost details to be worked out as the plan depends on whether the RDCK is successful with its grant.
The RDKB will be moving forward with its organics diversion mandate one way or another, Russel added. They’ve looked at a number of different options, including sending organic waste to the Boundary facility and have applied for their own grant for improvements there.
There has been unanimous support around the RDKB board table at this point.