Composting Series, Part 1: Food Scraps Recycling in Metro Vancouver

Have you ever wondered about to do with the food scraps you accumulate each week? Today marks the first of a four-part, month-long series on composting. Whether you're curious about starting your own composter or want to reduce your amount of household garbage each week, there's sure to be something of interest!

About one-third to a half of the average household's garbage is food scraps. But did you know that there's a good chance that you can now recycle them? Most municipalities in Metro Vancouver now collect food waste!

Cities offering food waste collection:

Bowen Island Burnaby Coquitlam Delta Langley (Township) New Westminster North Vancouver (City and District) Pitt Meadows

Port Coquitlam Port Moody Richmond Surrey Vancouver West Vancouver White Rock

Source: Metro Vancouver

Composting food scraps and food-soiled paper products provides a valuable resource, diverts waste, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and in the process, helps to create a more sustainable city.

So, what can you put in? Where do you put the food waste?

If your neighbourhood has curb-side food scraps collection, you can put your leftovers or spoiled food into your yard trimmings waste bin. Just be sure not to use plastic or biodegradable bags! These contaminate the compost and also interrupt the composting process.

While there might be slight variations depending on the municipality you live in, food scraps recycling is as easy as this -- simple and no fuss. You can even put in meat, cheese, dairy, and bones!

The City of Burnaby, for example, operates a curb-side food scraps recycling program for single-family households and some multi-family complexes also participate and receive food waste recycling (Green Bin) services. 

For a handy guide on what you can and cannot include, as well as how to make a kitchen compost pail liner with newspaper, check out their Food Scraps Brochure.

To find out about other cities in Metro Vancouver, visit your respective municipalities' website (see "Cities offering food waste collection" above).

How do I get started?

1. Get a lidded container to collect food scraps and food-soiled paper products for your kitchen. An old 4 litre ice cream bucket or large plastic container are both good examples.

2. Grab a few sheets of old newspaper to make a liner for the bucket.

3. Collect accepted food scraps and food-soiled paper products in your container.

4. Empty your food scraps, along with the paper liners, into your yard trimmings container.

5. Set out your yard trimmings container on your regular scheduled collection day. The container does not have to be full for it to be collected.

6. Rinse and lightly wash your kitchen bucket and yard trimmings container in between uses.

And that's all, folks!

What if your municipality isn't on the list that receives food scraps collection? Or maybe you're interested in starting your own compost bin.

Stay tuned and join us next week for Part 2 of our Composting Series, on backyard composting.

Feature: Growing Chefs!

Founded in 2005, the non-profit Growing Chefs! Chefs for Children's Urban Agriculture program pairs volunteer chefs with elementary school classrooms, and with the help of chefs, students learn how to plant, grow, and cook their own vegetables. Just this year, over 2 dozen elementary schools from Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, West Vancouver, and Richmond participated in the program.

Each year, elementary schools sign up for the Classroom Gardening Program, which starts every year after spring break and extends from March through June. The program is available for Grades 1 through 3.

Credit: Growing Chefs!

Wait a second: urban agriculture? Cue the looks of interest. How exactly does that work?

Urban agriculture is often used to refer to the restructuring of urban spaces to incorporate food production operations into areas that are densely populated -- in short, growing food in the city. This could mean anything from keeping chickens in your backyard, tending a small garden on your apartment balcony, or growing herbs in a pot on your windowsill.

The Growing Chefs! program tackles themes of food sustainability by attempting to get children involved, in the steps from gardening and grocery shopping to meal planning and preparation.

The mission of the non-profit society is to support and encourage the development and growth of urban agriculture and to provide an avenue for chefs and food growers to engage in the community and to support food sustainability.

For more information on Growing Chefs!, visit their website: http://www.growingchefs.ca/

For teachers and schools and to sign up: http://www.growingchefs.ca/teachers-program-info

For chefs interested in signing up to volunteer: http://www.growingchefs.ca/volunteer-program-info

What's Happening in November

After a late summer and numerous weeks of unbearable (ha!) sunshine, it's back to the weather that we're known for: rain. If you're getting cabin-feverish, grab your rain gear and check out some of the events going on this month in and around Burnaby.

Did you know?

November is Diabetes Awareness Month. Today, more than 9 million Canadians live with diabetes or prediabetes, which is a condition that, left unchecked, leaves you at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. That's nearly 1 in 4 Canadians!

The number of people with type 2 diabetes is rising dramatically and it one of the most common diet-related conditions, next to obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Rising obesity rates and increasingly sedentary lifestyles are two of the major contributing factors in the rise of diabetes cases.

Source: Canadian Diabetes Association.

Vancouver Winter Farmers' Market

Location: Nat Bailey Stadium, East Parking Lot (4601 Ontario Street / Vancouver - map)
Dates: November 3, 2012 to April 27, 2013 (Closed December 29)
Hours: 10:00 am to 2:00 pm each Saturday

Thought the start of winter meant the end of locally grown and made goodies?

The winter market hosts over 60 vendors -- nearly as many as the three main Vancouver summer markets combined! -- offers a range of foods, from local produce to homemade chocolate and maple treats.

In an effort to reduce plastic use at the market, please bring your own shopping bags.

For more information on the market, including transportation and parking at the site, please visit their website: http://www.eatlocal.org/

Food Swap Burnaby

**UPDATE: The November food swap has been cancelled. Keep your eye out for details on a potential swap early next month!**

Location: TBD
Date: November 19, 2012
Cost: $5 per person (based on previous events)

Trade your homemade, home-grown, or foraged creations with other participants!

Registration is limited for this event. The Evenbrite page for registration will be up in the coming weeks, so check back here or follow Food Swap Burnaby at the sites below. Details on the swap can be found through their Facebook page.

Follow Food Swap Burnaby!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/foodswap.bby
Twitter: https://twitter.com/foodswap_bby

Curious about the event or want to know more about food swaps? Click here to check out our Feature post from July.

BC Seeds Gathering 2012

Location: Kwantlen Polytechnic University (8771 Lansdowne Road / Richmond - map)
Dates: November 9 to 11, 2012
Cost: $125 (Saturday) or $200 (Friday to Sunday), including meals

The Seeds Gathering is a provincial gathering of seed growers, savers, and activists. Small-scale seed growers, community leaders, seed networks, and young urban farmers from across BC bring their seeds to the Gathering to form a BC Seeds producer co-operative.

For more information or to register, please visit the Farm Folk City Folk website: http://www.farmfolkcityfolk.ca/events/bcseeds2012/

*Please note that attendance at this event is by registration only.

Call for Volunteers: BC Seeds Gathering 2012

The BC Seeds Gathering is a one-of-a-kind event bringing together seed growers and producers from across the province to share stories, experiences, wisdom, and knowledge.

BC Seeds Gathering 2012
When: November 9 to 11, 2012
Where: Kwantlen Polytechnic University (8771 Lansdowne Road / Richmond - map)

BC Seeds Gathering is seeking volunteer videographers to record keynote speeches, panel and roundtable discussions, and other activities at the gathering in order to make this content available to those unable to attend and to the general public.

Volunteers should be experienced videographers with access to gear to record sessions and activities over the three days.

In exchange for their time, volunteers will be provided free admission to all events, meals and snacks during the gathering, and honoraria to key volunteers.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Tallulah of FarmFolk CityFolk at (604) 730-0450 or send an email.

To download the full volunteer posting in PDF format, please click here. Note that Adobe Acrobat or another PDF reader is required to view the document.

For more information about the gathering, please visit the event website: http://www.farmfolkcityfolk.ca/events/bcseeds2012/

What's Happening: Classes and Workshops

Summer is gearing down -- don't the warm months always speed by? -- and with September around the corner, now is the time to grab up registration seats for the repertoire of classes and workshops starting this autumn.

Want to learn about food preparation safety? Food security issues? Want to take a culinary journey around the world? Or try your hand at cheese making? Look no further!

Burnaby Community & Continuing Education

Burnaby Community and Continuing Education offers a number of courses on cooking, health, and home food production.

Registration started August 1. Register early, because spots go quickly!

Caribbean Cooking (0018-1): September 22 ($59)
Cooking with Curry (0006-1): September 27 ($49)
Indonesian Favourites (0007-1): October 2 ($48)
Preserve Your Own Food: Canning (0024-1): October 3 ($40)
Thai Cooking (0016-1): October 10 ($49)
Baking with Gluten-Free Alternatives (0029-1): October 13 ($74)
Bee Keeping (0302-1): October 13 ($49)
Making It Last: Drying Foods (0028-1): October 13 ($58)
Raw Food for Optimal Health (0019-1): October 17 ($64)
Make Yoghurt & Cheese Without Dairy (0013-1): October 24 ($70)
Soup's On (0011-1): November 1 ($49)
Artisan Cheese Making (0025-1): November 3 ($59)
Singapore & Malaysian Cooking (0010-1): November 20 ($48)

For details, times, and locations on the above courses and to register, please visit the Burnaby Community and Continuing Education website: http://www.burnabyce.com/

FoodSafe (Level 1)
Dates: September 8 & 29 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Location: BCIT / 3700 Willingdon Ave. @ Building NE1, Rm 422 (map)
Cost: $70 (including taxes)

FoodSafe (Level 1) discusses the top 10 improper food-handling practices that cause over 95% of all food poisoning cases and how to reduce risk of food poisoning through proper food handling techniques.

Topics covered include an introduction to how microbes cause food poisoning, proper receiving and storing of foods, and food-handling steps such as cooking, cooling, reheating, cold and hot-holding, and thawing. Personal hygiene, safe service of food, cleaning, and prevention of food-service worker injury are also discussed.

To reserve a seat or for more information, please call (604) 272-7213 or send an email. For details, please visit the ADVANCE Hospitality Education website: http://www.foodsafe-courses.com/

The Politics of Food and Eating
Dates: September 10 to October 22 from 9:30 am to 11:20 am
Location: SFU Vancouver / 515 W Hastings St. (map)
Cost: $104 (total of 6 classes)

Please note that this course is for adults aged 55 and older.

How have iceboxes and refrigeration transformed our dinner table? Join Josh Labove and explore factors that have resulted in food insecurity for the urban poor, as well as the surging popularity of food trucks and the bringing of once-exotic cuisines to the Lower Mainland. The challenges posed by urban food deserts -- places where fresh produce is hard to find -- will also be discussed.

For details and to register, please visit the course website: http://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/

Healthy Habits
Dates: Every month, Wednesday at 5:15 pm
Location: Galloway's Specialty Foods / Richmond (map)
Cost: FREE

Beginning from September, join Dr. Neetu Dhiman once a month for information on healthy habits and learn how to select smart and healthy foods to ensure a long-term solution for optimal health and a happy body.

Space is limited, so please call (604) 270-6363 to register your spot. For more information, please visit the Galloway's website: http://gallowaysfoods.com/. A schedule of classes will be posted in August, so stay tuned to their website for details!