As reported by the Vancouver Sun, the City of Surrey, British Columbia has signed a new $9-million waste contract with BFI Canada to provide a "sustainable" trash collection service that will eventually see its trucks fuelled with kitchen scraps, yard waste and other organics.
Under the contract, which will come into effect in October 2012, the city's residential waste will be collected using compressed natural gas trucks that emit 23 per cent less carbon emissions and 90 per cent less air particulates than traditional diesel trucks, according to the city.
The deal follows a pilot curbside organics program that was initiated in 2010 in an attempt to analyze the effectiveness, costs and customer concerns of separating organics from other residential waste and keeping it out of landfills. The city plans to expand the program across Surrey in 2012, with the organics to eventually be trucked to the city's new biofuel facility.
"We want to make sure we're doing everything we could possibly do to ensure we're reducing waste and being responsible to the environment," says Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, noting the waste collection program will establish a "benchmark" in North America. "The good thing is we'll use the organics in our bio-fuel facility, which will fuel the trucks."
The aim is to divert 70 per cent of the city's waste from the landfill by 2015 -- a move consistent with a strategy by Metro Vancouver Regional District. Under Metro's program, all municipalities will be required to have a kitchen scraps program in place by 2015 to reduce the amount of garbage being trucked to the dump.
Port Coquitlam was the first Metro Vancouver municipality to offer curbside pickup of food scraps and food-soiled papers, and it is now being adopted by other municipalities. Everything from apple cores to chicken bones, bread crusts, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea bags, paper towels and pizza boxes must be in the green bin instead of the garbage can.
About 65 per cent of Surrey's garbage is kitchen waste, according to the city's website. Watts says Surrey's pilot organics program showed that residential garbage was reduced by 45 per cent in the participating areas.
The new garbage contract includes the use of standardized waste carts, which will be delivered in advance of all households.
The city manages the collection of residential curbside garbage, recycling and yard waste for about 97,000 single-family dwellings each week and to more than 30,000 multi-family units.