My family and the East Prince Waste Watch

By Susie Brown

FOR YEARS I HAVE BEEN BUGGING MY father to start a compost pile at home. Once time he actullay gave in, and we lasted about a week before people got tired of sorting their garbage before throwing it out. Recently, out in the boonies that | call home, a program was implemented to help save the earth. OK, maybe not the earth, but it is suppossed to help the landfills on PEI. If you’ve been watch- ing the news anytime in the last few months you would know that | am talking about the East Prince Waste Watch Program.

Upon the arrival of our green, black, and brown containers a yell went up, “What the heck am | suppossed to do with these things?” That question was not so quickly answered by the information brochures that come with the containers. This is where start to complain. The brochures are confusing at times to read, the lists under each container ire Not easy to use and the colours of the containers have confused my mother. We

~have had for some time now a large blue

garbage can in our kitchen which all household

environment by taking our little brown bucket

wastes went into. Now ->—— we have a tiny brown bucket into which all compostible material goes. On the occasions that | go home to do laundry there are four people in my house, and for some reason it only takes us half a day to fill this minute brown bucket. | actually don’t find this all that suprising considering the amount

out to the green container, which is about : twenty five feet away from the house.

By the end of two weeks this container re- ally starts to smell. And as my father mentioned, if it smells now, imagine what it will smell like when summer arrives.

There are two blue bags that you are suppossed to use for your cans and newspa- pers. Cans must be

of stuff you are sup- Posed to put into it: Egg cartons, animal bones,

“vegetable peelings, glossy paper, coffee grounds,

and many more other compostible things. This bucket is no larger than two shoe boxes, just

trying to fit the egg carton into itis a chore. So,

two or three times a day we do our bit for the

rinsed out, have the la- bels removed, the lid placed inside and then flattened to hold the lid in. | can do this, but my grandmother has a hard time trying to bend this metal can. So, now we have the brown bucket, the two blue bags, on to the actual

waste.

program

Waste is suppossed to go into the black container outside. This isn’t a problem except they didn’t supply a special bucket for in the house, so we have been using our old blue garbage can. This is an extremely difficult concept for my mother to grasp, that the garbage goes in the blue garbage can and then into the black container. She feels that blue is meant only for recylables.

My parents seem to like the new sys- tem overall, except we still have a few unan- swered questions about what goes where. | think the program needs to look into having larger brown buckets for families and perhaps an easier system of coding to make it easier for people who can’t read, or have problems understanding the phamphlet.

| would like to applaud the people who put the system together, | know it still has a few bugs, but it’s coming along and will soon be greatly imporved. | would like to see this program implemented right here on campus, as well as around the rest of the island.

Verminators' spring up across the country

(CUP) Campuses across Canada are beginning to invest in vermi-composters to get rid of their lood waste. Both Simon Fraser University and the hiversity of Ottawa have introduced worm x composters this year. Dayve Hollington, 0-ordinator of the worm x project at SFU, said their eA x isa scale model, andis Aa eant to publicize a rgerrecycling project be- § constructed at SFU. The odel worm box was set up lier this month. Hollington explained at worm box, or vermi- Omposting, is a simple proc- ‘ that imitates the natural le of decay. Food refuse, or wet Ste, is mixed with soil that contains an "thworm population. The worms eat the fuse, enriching the soil in which they are ‘pended. The soil is then ready to be used as "tlizer in landscaping projects. Hollington explained that the worm x model is designed to showthat worm Ste reclamation is efficient and practical. He esthat the model will educate other cam- ‘es about wet waste recycling possibilities. The University of Ottawa installed a ga vermi-composter in itsmain cafeteria ‘ November. It is so successful the Versityplans to obtain five more for the

campus. The pilot worm box has been

composting more than 60 pounds of food

scraps each day.

"It's working great,” said Marcel Labelle,

Ege

Wiss i

Jas itods lates

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waste management and recycling co-ordinator for the university. “It’s the best thing wecould have come up with.”

The worms have been reproducing at such a.rapid rate that Labelle will have to relocate 20 pounds of worms from that composter into a new one.

The U of O composter is a top-of-the- line model, and can degrade meat scraps, dairy products and most organic wastes. The fin- ished compost will be used as fertilizer around campus. Labelle said the main disadvantage is the hefty price tag of $1,500 per vermi- composter.

The U of O administration decided to expand its waste-reductionprogram after the Ontario provincial government legislated uni- versities to reduce their waste by 50 per cent before the year 2000.

Meanwhile at SFU, the first of four stages is already in the works. Wood chips from storm clean-up at SFU will be mixed with wet waste, and the resulting fertilizer will be used in campus landscaping.

"It’s been written into the landscaper’s contract. With the help of worms, the chips from the dead wood will be reclaimed, along with wet waste,” Hollington said.

The second, third and fourth steps eventually will help

‘reclaim all food refuse pro- duced on the SFU campus.

Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group officials praised Hollington’s efforts, saying SFU wastes money disposing wet waste in landfills.

The landscaping staff need fertilizer to do their job. Compostingcloses the circle. Composting makes good business andenvironmental sense.”

Hollington is now negotiating with the British Columbia Institute of Technology, study- ing the feasibility of introducing a waste man- agement program on that campus.