We visited Brian Burke at Quayside Village Co-Housing on the North Shore today. He’s the recycling guru featured in the Clean Bin Project movie. We got to see his “extreme”
recycling system in action. He explains, that some people may consider it extreme that they recycle everything, well beyond the blue box. They compost everything that’s compostable too.
Brian manages two three bin systems, one wood and wire, one made from recycled plastic and wire; both are made locally by Cedar Creek. The bins are very well managed and are producing some beautiful dark finished compost which they use on their food and ornamental gardens. They’ve spruced the composting area up with some nice art, a mosaic worm crawls along the sidewalk.
Brian figures they are probably saving the municipality about $5,000 a year in avoided tipping fees. Quayside doesn’t get any money back because the cost for garbage service is buried in the property tax.
Behind every successful composting operation, large or small, is a good management team. Sometimes the team is only one person and often they don’t get paid for their efforts. Brian’s fellow co-housers are lucky to have him. So is the City of North Van.