Whether or not Champlain Township becomes a partner in promoting a home-composting invention will depend on a more detailed report from municipal staff.
Township council members spent almost an hour during their September 26 session debating whether or not the municipality should become a partner in a Quebec-based company’s project to promote the use of its food cycler invention.
“I’ve never had any issues with mine at all,” said Councillor Sarah Bigelow, who owns one of the small in-home composters made by Food Cycle Science Corporation. “It does significantly cut down on (organic food) waste.”
Earlier this year the company made a presentation to township council on a project to promote use of its food cyclers in local households. The company’s device was a semi-finalist in food waste reduction challenge competition organized by Impact Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The competition goal was development of alternatives to traditional backyard composting methods that would benefit urban households and also rural households that do not have either enough yard space to accommodate a traditional compost pile or enough home food waste to justify traditional composting.
The company is now promoting a pilot project among rural municipalities, including those in Prescott-Russell, to determine local interest in its food cycler system and encourage sales of the device. The pilot project involves a partnership between the company and participating municipalities to make food cyclers available for purchase at a reduced cost to interested households. The project includes a possible federal grant-in-aid to participating communities to help reduce the financial cost to the municipality for its part in the project.
Results of a survey by township staff indicated about a third of residents who responded were interested in having a food cycler. Another 20 per cent said they might be interested in the purchase price was lower while 41 per cent said they were not interested.
Township staff also reviewed results for other Prescott-Russell communities that agreed to take part in the project. The Nation Municipality and East Hawkesbury and Russell Townships all sold out their supply of food cyclers. Hawkesbury still has two-thirds of its units unsold while Casselman and Clarence-Rockland still have about half of their supply of the machines. Alfred-Plantagenet Township is not taking part in the project at present.
Champlain Township council members were divided on whether the township should take part in the project.
“We could be catering to a limited number of people,” said Councillor Paul Burrounghs.
Some councillors expressed concerns about the cost to the municipality if there are no or few sales and the township had to either pay a shipping cost to return any unsold units back to the company or find someplace to store them in case any resident wanted to buy them in the future.
Councillor Peter Barton proposed tabling the matter to allow administration time for a more detailed report on possible options. Council agreed to postpone a final decision pending another report from staff.
