My first topic this week – food waste – was prompted by a talk given by Ian Ross to the West Howe Sound Community Association (WHSCA). Ross, manager of Terminal Forest Products Langdale Division, said at the WHSCA’s Oct. 11 annual general meeting that Terminal is trying to eliminate waste by repurposing hog fuel.
Hog fuel is the colloquial term loggers use for biomass, which comes from shearing trees of branches, twigs and bark while shaping them into the smooth, round poles that Terminal’s customers demand, Ross said. The damp, shredded debris sits at the Terminal Dryland Sort in a 7,500-cubic-metre mound the size of a city block.
Terminal Forest Products Ltd. has operated the log sort on Twin Creeks Road for more than 100 years. In the early days, biomass was burned to get rid of it.
In the ’90s, some of the debris was ground into chips and turned into pulp and then paper at Howe Sound Pulp and Paper, and some was used as fuel to power the mill. Since then the mill became 40 per cent more energy efficient. Paper production stopped in 2015. The result: the city block of unused hog fuel.
Ross passed around a sheet of compressed biomass that looked like a black floor tile. The sleek-surfaced product fragments easily but can be used as cushioning for materials shipped by truck. Terminal is developing the product as a way to recycle and profit from its biomass.
In the meantime, it has been contributing buckets of the woody shards to the WHSCA, which has been using them in its community composter. Hog fuel is full of carbon, which helps turn organic waste into soil.
After two rounds of soil making on Langdale Road, the composter has been moved to Thompson Road near Wharf. Area residents are welcome to dump their dinner scraps into the bin.
Ian Winn, Area F director for the Sunshine Coast Regional District, urged those who attended the AGM to use the composter or establish their own composting system for food waste. “We’re at a cusp of a crisis with our solid waste management,” he said.
The Sechelt Landfill will be at capacity in eight to 10 years. Without alternate disposal methods, the only option would be to barge the district’s waste to Washington, Winn said.
He concluded his part in the AGM with an overview of SCRD activities. Chief among them in terms of effect on West Howe Sound is a public meeting that will consider BC Ferries’ application to rezone its Langdale lands. The rezoning would allow substantial changes to the terminal and create huge inconveniences for West Howe Sounders.
Langdale residents, in particular, would have to endure many months of road construction and blockages where the Port Mellon Highway meets the ferry road.
I don’t get the feeling that Coasters on average want to thwart an upgrade of the ferry terminal. However, as a resident of Langdale – on Smith Road, which is sure to be a noisy mess during the construction – I’d hope to see the ferries give back to our beleaguered community.
In Vancouver, major projects that require rezoning must usually contribute something significant to the neighbourhood. The Roundhouse Community Centre is an example.
I think the SCRD should compel BC Ferries to build a community centre for Langdale. The area is designated by its OCP to become the commercial hub of West Howe Sound, and Langdale Elementary School attracts growing families to its neighbourhood.
Langdale needs a community centre that connects neighbours with neighbours and that offers programming that benefits families. The public meeting will give people a chance to ask the ferry corporation for this. It takes place at the Cedars Inn at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 26.
I hope to see you there. In the meantime, please note another upcoming event. At 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I’ll be doing a reading at the Gibsons Public Market along with presentations by three other writers and a photographer.
Most are West Howe Sound residents: myself, writer Rosa Reid, graphic novelist Cathalynn Labonte-Smith, and Steve Smith, who will show how to morph photos with the styles of masters, such as Vincent Van Gogh. The fifth presenter, memoirist Elspeth Richmond, lives in Roberts Creek. Door prizes include a family pack of Science World tickets.
Until then, you can reach me with news of West Howe Sound at [email protected].
