From plate to gas tank?

By Jeff Nagel - Peace Arch News - April 15, 2008

Planned food waste composting plants for the region may end up producing biofuel for your gas tank instead of nutrients for the garden.

Metro Vancouver intends to build the first such plant in northwest Langley at its sewage treatment plant near the Golden Ears Bridge.

But the original vision of turning food waste from restaurants and eventually homes into compost is no longer a certainty after the board decided last month to consider other technologies, which could instead generate a diesel-like biofuel.

Vancouver councillors, however, oppose the idea of using food scraps to power vehicles.

“Biodiesel sure the heck isn’t the highest and best use to me,” said Vancouver Coun. Suzanne Anton. “Corn being turned into biofuels is a bad idea. And our organic waste being turned into diesel is also a bad idea.”

Metro waste management committee chair Marvin Hunt said it deserves consideration, noting biofuels would generate much more money than compost, enabling the regional district to recoup some of its costs.

“You can get back $12 to $14 per tonne if you turn this into diesel,” Hunt said. “And you’re looking at a renewable resource.”

Richmond Coun. Harold Steves said it may actually be better to make biofuels from waste rather than from agricultural crops if that helps stem the trend of using farmland for fuel.

The region is expected to reconsider the issue when bids come in from prospective partners.

While the northwest Langley site is the only property Metro owns where a plant could be built fast, it likely couldn’t handle more than 40,000 tonnes per year.

Usable compost from all sources – yard waste plus food from grocery stores, restaurants, hotels and, over time, homes – would provide an estimated 280,000 tonnes per year of raw material from across the region.

Officials say that means more sites would likely be needed.

The Vancouver Landfill in Delta, already home to the first successful trial, might serve western parts of the region – if an agreement can be reached over future use of the site.

Maple Ridge and Surrey have also expressed interest in hosting a plant in their cities, as have private composting firms in Richmond and Delta.

The idea of food waste composting has been tried before in B.C., but abandoned each time after successive projects were bedevilled by complaints about the stench.

Metro staff think past trouble may be over after successful trials of a new cover technology.

It’s been in use at the Cedar Grove Composting site in Everett, Wash. for the past five years, processing 145,000 tonnes of food and yard waste per year without odour complaints, despite close proximity to 5,000 residents.

The system was tested at the Vancouver Landfill this winter and reduced a batch of yard and garden waste to high-grade compost in just two months, compared to more than 10 months without the cover.

A similar test using 42 per cent food waste was carried out at the Langley site and despite winter conditions the pile’s temperature averaged 70-80 degrees Celsius.

Food waste would go into compostable or biodegradable plastic bags. Staff are testing various types to see how well they break down in the compost pile. It had been hoped the new food waste composting plant could be operational by November, but next spring is now considered a more reliable target.

Langley Township Coun. Mel Kositsky said the sewage treatment plant site is relatively isolated, but he wants Metro officials to explain the idea directly to his council.

He said Langley has had trouble in the past with mushroom composting plants.

“We certainly have to have very stringent rules,” Kositsky said.

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From plate to gas tank?

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