Nancy White loaded this weekend’s food waste into her FoodCycler home composter — it’s a compact, table top composter that she’s sworn by for three years now.
“It’s heat generated, so it takes everything in there, takes it up to a very high temperature, and then dries it all out. There’s a chopping/slicing mechanism in there too, so it chops things up really fine, dries it out over two to three hours, and then you put it in a bucket and throw it onto your garden,” explained the Southampton, Ont. homeowner.
White and her husband’s enthusiasm for their FoodCycler has led Saugeen Shores Council to embark on a FoodCycler pilot project. Saugeen Shores is subsidizing the cost of 320 home composting units for residents to see if the table top composter could keep more food waste out their local landfill.
“We have the potential to reduce upwards of 80,000 kilograms of waste going into our landfill, annually. That’s quite significant,” said Saugeen Shores’ Manager of Operations, Larry Gill.
Spending $25,000 to keep the FoodCycler purchase price to less than half of retail has led to huge uptake in Saugeen Shores and across Bruce County, where as many as four other municipalities have taken up the FoodCycler challenge.
“We have a waiting list, and they’re throughout the county, which is really thrilling to me, to see it’s not just Saugeen Shores. That it’s growing and being embraced across our whole region,” explained Saugeen Shores Councillor, Cheryl Grace, who spearheaded the FoodCycler idea at the council table.
Participants will get 12 weeks to test drive their FoodCycler to see if it really reduces their weekly garbage output. White and her partner, Stewart Nutt, expect people to love it.
“FoodCycler really is a way to compost food, electronically. Essentially, it’s great for people to use in their homes, instead of having a compost pile outside,” said Nutt.
“I see this FoodCycler project growing exponentially in this community, and beyond,” added Gill.
You can learn more about Saugeen Shores’ FoodCycler project, and similar pilot projects underway across Bruce County and other parts of Ontario, by visiting the Saugeen Shores' website.
