With municipalities across the Lower Mainland - including Vancouver, North Vancouver, Coquitlam, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey and New Westminster, among others - participating in city-run food waste programs, one Canadian company has come up with a way to ease the composting process for residents.
"The issue that crops up time and time again when you ask people to compost their kitchen waste in order to keep [organic material] out of the landfill is that it can, quite frankly, be a bit of a messy endeavour," says Carson O'Neill, CEO of Bag To Earth Inc. "But the fact remains that these municipal food waste programs are a good idea. They really do work from an environmental perspective, so our aim is to make it easy and convenient - as hassle-free a process as possible - in order to encourage more participation."
He points to his firm's Food Waste Bags, made from all-natural materials designed to disappear fully into the earth along with any approved food scraps you toss into them. The bags, which come in two sizes, are comprised of a paper exterior lined with a patented natural fibre made from cellulose - a kind of "clear paper" that's been in use for at least a century.
"We've actually had consumers contact us after looking inside our bags and mistaking the lining for plastic, which, of course, it isn't," O'Neill states. "Cellulose is a 100% compostable material that will fully disappear back into the earth, just like the coffee grounds, eggshells, spaghetti sauce and banana peels you put into our bags. In other words, it helps to complete the organic loop."
Plastic bags, even those labelled biodegradable or compostable, he continues, have no place in an organic food waste program, as they actually "back up" the process.
"Say you line the green bin that's in your kitchen or the larger one on your curb with plastic and then you put your organics directly into that plastic for pickup," he says. "What you end up with is a plastic bag sitting in the city's compost site and backing it up because it's a non-compostable material. It totally negates the purpose."
By lining your kitchen and/or outdoor bin with a Bag To Earth Food Waste Bag, however, all of the material - food waste and bag - that's taken from your home by your municipality will return to the earth in its entirety.
The question remains: why would any well-meaning resident put plastic inside a bin, when the contents of that bin are meant for compost? O'Neill says it often comes down to cleanliness.
"Leftover food scraps can be slimy and stinky, and even those of us with the best intentions when it comes to the environment may be deterred from participating in a composting program due to the mess,"
he says. "Our Food Waste Bags, however, solve this problem by keeping your bins clean and odour free."
Not only is the cellulose liner in every Bag To Earth Food Waste Bag totally leak-proof, keeping unpleasant smells from escaping is as simple as rolling down the top of the bag and sealing it with a clip or clothespin. Additionally, each Food Waste Bag's flat bottom means it can either be placed in your green bin or set as a standalone right on your kitchen counter.
"When the bag's full, just run it out and put it in your curbside bin," says O'Neill. "No need to dump it out; the bag goes right in and returns to the earth completely, from the lining to the tie ... right down to the print on the exterior. And, if you wish, line your outdoor bin with one of our larger-sized bags. You won't need to hose down the interior due to food scraps getting stuck on the sides and making a mess."
Each small Bag To Earth Food Waste Bag, one of which will last a family of four about a week (just enough time to fill and place curbside for pickup), costs approximately $0.50 - that's just $26 a year.
Again, O'Neill emphasizes the fact that "nothing about our Food Waste Bags compromises the composting aspect." In fact, Bag To Earth relies on the success of municipally run food waste programs.
"We follow these programs very closely and regularly update our website with the latest information from across the country," he says. "Consumers are more than welcome to visit www.bagtoearth.com to find details about their local food waste program, as well as a list of retailers in their area that carry our products."
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