What’s rotting behind the Jasper Brew Pub may be the sweet-smelling solution to getting the town’s organics diversion program off the ground.
The hydraulic bin as environmental stewardship coordinator Janet Cooper calls it, was installed to handle tonnes of organic waste generated by the Connaught Drive brewery.
According to Cooper, between 40 and 50 per cent of all waste going to the regional landfill is organic.
To try and divert some of this waste, she would like to see more of these heavy-duty bins installed in Jasper’s back alleys so that a handful of restaurants can collectively use them. Cooper said the challenge for eateries is finding space in their back-of-house for the hulking 64-gallon rollout bins to get the organics from the kitchen to the town’s collectors.
Restaurants can’t store the bins outside because they’re not wildlife-proof, but if there were a communal hydraulic bin nearby, they could use a smaller bin in-house and empty it daily.
“That’s the struggle,” Cooper said. “The majority of our organics in town come from the restaurants, so we’re trying to work on collection to make it easier. We think there are a couple of places we could do it.”
If the system proves successful, the diversion levels might find themselves closer to that of cardboard, which has become a jackpot on the recycling market. The price for a metric tonne of the stuff, which is the easiest paper product to break down and reform into more cardboard, has gone from $88 a year ago to about $230 today.
“It’s a crime to throw it away,” Cooper said. “We have so much cardboard coming through our guys are picking it up and baling it every day.”
On the whole, however, diversion rates have stayed relatively flat in the last four years, inching up from 30 per cent in 2013 to 34 per cent in 2015 and 2016.
“I’d like to see collection of organics from individual households increasing,” Cooper said. “There are so many people in town who are so on board and passionate about it, but there is always that anonymous number who don’t do it.”
For more information on how you can be a part of the pollution solution, visit the municipality’s website.
Craig Gilbert
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