Lawrence & Candace – SFU Facilities & Sustainable SFU

Trashbusters had the pleasure of chatting with Lawrence Reason from SFU Facilities and Candace Bonfield, from Sustainable SFU. You may not think that facilities and sustainability have a lot in common, but in fact, these two silos cross more often than not. S

As a team, Sustainable SFU and SFU Facilities have been collaborating to audit the amount of food waste generated at SFU Burnaby. We thought it would be a great opportunity to see how their knowledge and research could help Trashbusters in accelerating the speed and success of our composting and food rescue program. These audits are currently taking place in the Maggie Benson Centre, and the key purpose is to quantify how much organic waste is generated, to fill a compost system, rather than a landfill.

Some key take-aways from our conversation include the following points mentioned by Candace and Lawrence:

Why hasn’t composting worked at SFU Burnaby in the past?

Previously the composting initiatives were student run, and then when the students graduated, or lost interest, or became too busy and so the project eventually lost support.

There has also not been enough organic waste generate by the SFU community to make this initiative financially feasible. One side of this is that vendors have become extremely efficient at managing their waste. The other, less desirable side, is that vendors supply a lot processed and refined foods, ones that, if leftover, cannot be composted. Lawrence noted that it costs roughly $35 000 to install a composting system, but this does not include the variable costs of sorting, collecting, and mixing the waste. This coupled with a lack of financial support for the project (particularly none from the municipality of Burnaby) presents Trashbusters with some large hurdles.

Facilities has considered sending the compostables off campus to another site, but the cost associated with carbon credits and footprint remains high.

 How would a composting system be different this time around?

 The composting project will be staff run and staff supported. According to Candace, “A staff run program is the most effective way to be successful.”

 Feasibility & Logistics:

 Most likely, SFU Burnaby will instate a warm composting system on the hill. Currently there are decisions about whether to have the soil sent down the mountain or used on site. With the proposal, which they plan to have submitted in the 2010, it should provide the SFU staff with the base funding necessary to run to the project.

The composting initiatives will be injected in three phases. The first phase will include the easiest targets – the food vendors on campus. The second phase will include staff and faculty offices. The third phase then will be the hardest targets – members of residence and the general public. It is currently a challenge to even have residence buildings to recycle their bottles and paper, so composting can pose additional challenges for them as well.

 Stay tuned as Trashbusters continues to assess the feasibility and uncovers the best avenues through which to make change.

My Interview With Quest Food Exchange

I recently contacted Quest Food Exchange, so that I could find out more information on the process of food rescue and the challenges they are currently facing. I spoke with Geneva Bokowski, the Community Relations Coordinator at Quest. Below are a few questions and answers that were spoken about in our conversation:

K: Can you tell me about the process of food rescue? For example, what kind of non-marketable food do you collect, and what is the process with the vendors like?

G: We have a list of suppliers and vendors that donate monthly or bi-weekly. From them we collect items such as produce, canned items,  and food that is near expiry, overstocked, or mislabelled. The vendors receive a tax receipt so it’s actually cheaper for them to donate to us rather than throwing the food away. We do the pick ups ourselves so it is easier and more convenient for them.

K: What is the separation process like?

G: We have volunteers that do the separation, and the food gets opened, checked, and even tasted for quality control. The food that is not usable gets seperated for compost, which we send out to other facilities. Ideally though, we would lke have have our own composting garden at Quest.

K: Can you tell me about the low cost grocery store? Is there a screening process?

G: We have a few locations for the grocery store. One is on East Georgia, and we just opened one in Surrey as well. The shoppers need a referral in order to shop at the store, often from The Ministry of Housing, or The Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance. The referral is pretty casual, they need written proof that they are approved and they receive vouchers (which range anywhere between $14-$40) to shop at the store. The food that we sell there is 70% reduced.

K: What does the organizational structure look like at Quest?

G: At East Georgia, we have 5 full-time employees. Altogether (at our 3 locations), we have about 21 full time employees and a broad volunteer base. We get our funding from grants, as we are not government funded.

K: What are some of the current challenges you are facing?

G: Funding is always an issue. We usually have a kitchen where we prepare meals from the food we collect, but right now we cannot operate it because of the lack of funding.

K: What do you hope to see for Quest in the future?

G: We have a 5 year expansion plan, where we want to expand to the Tri-Cities. We also want to have a warehouse in Surrey in order to serve them better. Finally, we have a provincial vision for Quest, so hopefully in the future we can expand further throughout BC.

I really want to thank Geneva for taking her time to answer my questions. After our interview, she forwarded the information of our initiative to Charlene Ponto, the Project Coordinator for SFU’s Local Food Project. Charlene then forwarded the message to various other contacts, including Bonnie Edelstein, SFU’s Food Bank Coordinator, Liesl Jurock, the Student Life Manager, and Loretta Laurin, a member of the SFSS Advocacy Committee. Because of Geneva, our idea may just come into action!

Central City Mall Food Court Waste

We spoke to the Central City Admininistration, who answered some of Trashbusters questions about the actions taken currently to reduce their packagaing and food waste.

1. Does Central City’s food court use any waste management techniques as a whole, or is this responsibly of each individual vendor?

Answer: Currently for the food court, the waste management program uses techniques of both: individual responsibility and as a whole.

a) The compactors(cardboard and garbage) are building supplied and serviced
b) common area garbage/ recycling is removed by our building cleaning staff
c) the tenants are responsible for putting in their own waste/recycling into the appropriate containers or arranging specialty waste removal

2. What recycling system is currently in place for the mall?

Answer: Central City Mall recycles: mixed paper, containers: plastics, bottles, metals, cardboard, and grease/oil

3. Does the mall participate in any composting program for food dispersal? If not, would they be willing to do so if the expense was minimal?

Answer: The mall does not currently participate in any composting program. At this point cost is not an issue but more the logistics: ie., waste contamination, space, etc. More analysis is of interest.

4. Tim Hortons has a eat-in (with ceramic plates, bowls, mugs, and utensils) and take-out container system put in place. Has the  mall ever thought of taking on a system like this to reduce waste?

Answer: As a whole, this has not been done. At this point, individual food court tenant would have their own objectives in this matter.

5. Who responsibility is waste management in general at Central City mall?

Answer: The waste management of the mall in general is a shared responsibility. Most of the systems in place are run by building management. There are exceptions to this, dependant on lease arrangements/requirements Common areas are maintained by building management. The tenants are responsible for their own waste and to transfer it to the appropriate waste areas, relative to the  supplied containers.