Students walking around the Lansdowne campus may have noticed some green plastic cones sticking out of the ground in random locations. These green cones are part of a composting program aimed to divert organic waste from the Hartland Landfill.
With the landfill slated to reach capacity by 2035, the Capital Regional District is looking for ways to extend its life. Since compost makes up roughly 30 percent of the waste that gets shipped there, it’s an obvious choice for waste diversion. This means that in a few years food scraps won’t be allowed to go into garbage cans at home, work, and school.
To get ahead of the ban, some Camosun students started a composting program. Also known as anaerobic digesters, these green cones break down food waste in the absence of oxygen and leach nutrients back into the surrounding soil.
These composters are great because they’re rat-proof, they have low set-up costs, and they’re low maintenance; no one needs to turn the compost. Better still, they can process cooked food, meat, dairy, and bread.
Currently, there are 13 green cones at the Lansdowne campus: two between Dawson and the library, five by the staff parking lot off Lansdowne, two behind Dunlop House, three next to the Native Plant Garden, and one by the Richmond House.
If the program proves successful there are plans to expand it to Interurban. So, next time you have a banana peel or other food waste, go to your nearest campus composter.