Gearing up to Go Green

Dawson Hamilton

It’s eight A.M. and I’m in one of Dawson Hamilton’s offices, a midnight-blue VW Golf named Jacqueline, driving from Ottawa to Montreal to attend Americana 2011, an international environmental technology trade show and conference. Hamilton, an energetic and friendly mid-twenties graduate of Dalhousie University's School of Business, is clearly excited about his current project.

In a world where many are concerned about the food that goes to their waists, Hamilton is concerning himself with our food that goes to waste:

“Compostec is gaining support and momentum for better solutions for food waste than trucking it to a landfill in plastic bags,” he says. “I’m interested in solutions and strategies for food waste that are more economically and environmentally sustainable than simply throwing everything out, and I believe others are too.”

Hamilton explains Compostec is working to increasing the use of on-site food waste management and has created a resource at www.compostec.ca for households, businesses, institutions, and governments to find information, connect to online communities and gain access to technology.

Waste Management Today

According to a 2005 Statistics Canada report, “Human Activity and the Environment,” 40 percent of the waste generated by the average Canadian household is organic. In 2002, that 40 percent equalled about five million tonnes of organics—about 150 kilograms per capita. With disposal fees ranging around the country from around $30 to $100 per tonne, millions of dollars could be saved, Hamilton argues, by diverting organic waste on site instead of from landfills every day.

Most organic decomposition in landfills occurs in an anaerobic environment, which causes the release of methane, a greenhouse gas over twenty times more damaging than carbon dioxide. In contrast, digestion and compost systems introduce air throughout the organics, encouraging organisms that release carbon dioxide as a by-product instead of methane.

“I knew our solutions were right from an ecological perspective,” Hamilton says. “I was unsure, early on anyway, that on-site technology would provide obvious benefits over Green Bin programs, but the more I looked into these products, the more benefits I found.”

After reading the initial capital investment for the City of Ottawa’s Green Bin program was $15 million, and has an estimated annual operating cost of $13.6 million—about $40 per household per year—Hamilton became confident he could convince other municipalities to take a different approach to organic-waste diversion.

What can Compostec do for you?

The principle advantage of on-site organic-waste solutions, Hamilton says, is the one-time investment, low maintenance cost, and long-term sustainability they offer—without the need for large, centralized facilities and terribly inefficient trucks to provide curb-side pickup. Instead of another bin to haul to the curb every week, Hamilton wants citizens to have a natural, easy system to process food-waste in their own backyards. Hamilton is also quick to emphasize most Green Bin programs do not cover medium and large producers of food waste, such as apartment buildings and food-related businesses. Because of this this, Hamilton is working to deliver citizens more complete and more sustainable organic-waste disposal systems.

Meet the line-up

Through phone calls, meetings and old-fashioned gumption, Hamilton secured Compostec as the Ontario distributor of three tiers of food-waste processing technology. Each technology, he explained, suits a different situation, depending on the amount and characteristics of waste a client generates, how often and how much.

For household needs, especially in low-density areas, the simple and cheap Green Cone will digest an average household’s food waste. For medium-sized producers, the Earth Tub will handle 20-80 kilograms a day, and for large-volume processing needs, Agri-ventes Brome, a Canadian company, can provide automated on-site organic waste stream solutions, which can continually cycle waste from a variety of high-volume sources.

Like the Green Bin, the Green Cone is a remarkably simple unit made from recycled plastic. Unlike the Green Bin, the Green Cone will digest all household food waste in your yard, with no continuing cost to you as a taxpayer. The Green Bin, on the other hand, will hold your food-waste until garbage day, becoming less pleasant with time given all moisture and odours contained (for your enjoyment) by the locking lid and solid bottom. The kicker? You paid for it, and you’re still paying for it.

"To my mind," Hamilton says, "the only green thing about the Green Bin is the colour."

Unlike the glorified garbage bin that is the Green Bin, the Green Cone is composed of an above-ground, dual-layer cone sitting on a plastic basket. The dual layer cycles air in a digestion chamber, encouraging bacteria growth and aerobic decomposition, while the openings of the buried portion of the digester permit moisture to drain away and allow surrounding microbes and insects to avail themselves to the smorgasbord of scrumptiousness that was, to you anyway, the scary leftovers that hid in the fridge for two months.

While Hamilton supports households and industries composting yard waste, he suggests Green Cones offer greater efficiency and flexibility for food-waste than the traditional compost because they accept meat, bones, cooked food and small amounts of oil—things that would normally attract pests such as racoons and skunks. Pointing out the locking lid, air vents and in-ground design, Hamilton states Green Cones are pest-resistant and adds that aerobic decomposition and good drainage reduce odours that attract wildlife in the first place.

To medium-volume food waste producers, such as cafeterias and restaurants, Hamilton offers the Earth Tub, a large vessel, which features a powered internal auger for mixing composting materials for quick turnaround. Hamilton mentions several universities in North America who have adopted an Earth Tub system to stream food-waste on site and are saving money on waste-disposal and compost as a result.

An Earth Tub system can produce about 20 cubic metres of compost a year, which would cost around $800 from a bulk supplier, or $2000 from a garden centre. Though a system costs roughly $20,000, Hamilton is confident the production of compost, and the savings on waste-removal makes the Earth Tub a sound investment for many institutions, economically and environmentally.

The smallest of the Brome Composters (10' long)

Larger organic waste producers will need the Brome Modular Composter, a technology with enormous potential. The units are steel octagonal prisms with an automated rotation system which mixes and aerates the material. With enough material, the largest Brome unit can process up to 200 tonnes of organic waste a year.

Let’s talk turkey

The Quebec Brome team have a booth at a surprisingly lively Americana 2011. Though there are no windows in the conference hall, Paul Larouche, Agri-Ventes Brome’s friendly and passionate Director of Sales, manages to shed some light on Brome’s cost-savings potential.

“Return on investment is excellent,” Larouche says. “I have a client who runs a grocery store who used to have a compactor load that required a pick-up 18 to 20 times a year—at $900 per pick up. Since installing a Brome machine to handle his food waste, he is down to six pick-ups per year. You do the math.”

The math means Larouche’s client saves about $10,000 a year, which translates to a four-year return on investment. Hamilton also points out that installing an on-site solution, such as the Brome Composter, protects a food-waste producer from rising waste-removal fees.

Interested in what my local grocery stores are doing with their food waste, I investigate two neighourhood grocers. An aproned, ball-capped member of the produce department of The Superstore said two to three large bins are filled every day with old product and trimmings, which are then trucked to centralized facilities. My local Metro, however, sends all food waste to the trash compacter with other refuse.

That’s not all

In addition to cost savings and a reduced carbon footprint, implementing organic waste management systems is important for “pre-emptive front-end consciousness,” Hamilton says.

“When people take a more active role in reducing the amount of food waste that goes to landfill, it raises an awareness of food issues in general: where we buy food, the food we buy, where the food comes from,” Hamilton said. “Part of this work will involve shifting some norms. People have become accustomed to recycling, but we need every one to go a bit farther. Right now, we’re seeing the start of the shift to streaming organics in a serious way, but as more people are exposed to the idea, see the benefits and how easy it is, more people and more industries will get on board.”

Moving forward

With meetings and elbow-rubbing finished, and Mount Royal disappearing behind us as Jacqueline, the mobile office, heads back westward, Hamilton tells me about a Vancouver high school exemplifying the pro-active, if unconventional, approach needed to reshape food waste management.

With the help of a grant, an Earth Tub was purchased for a school with a greenhouse and large garden. Because more organic input means more compost output, students driven to expand their growing space decided they needed more food waste than their school was producing alone. To increase supply, they arranged to spend part of their physical education class picking up organics from other schools and a senior housing complex with bikes and trailers.

“I read about things like that,” Hamilton said, “and I know these systems will be successful. I think it’s really great communities are getting together to make earth to grow food. Composting is an essential part of the sustainable agriculture we need to help develop and strengthen. Organic waste management is a great way to unite groups, because everyone eats breakfast, lunch and dinner, and so until they invent potatoes without peels, we need a solution to a problem that will not go away.”

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