By Lyndsie Kiebert
Reader Staff
Bonner County commissioners gave unanimous approval June 22 for the Solid Waste Department to pursue a grant for a pilot compost program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The grant, made possible through the federal Community Compost and Food Waste Reduction project, would land somewhere between $45,000-$90,000 and require a 25% in-kind match from Bonner County. The grant would provide the initial investment for equipment necessary to compost local food waste and potentially sell the resulting product as garden compost.
“This would reduce the amount of waste going into the landfill and reduce cost of transportation and disposal,” said Bonner County Solid Waste Director Bob Howard. “It would also generate income from selling the compost to the public.”
The pilot program would use food waste from local restaurants, grocery stores and Schweitzer Mountain Resort, which Commissioner Dan McDonald said was already seeking out such a compost program.
“This is a really nice, self-perpetuating deal that will save us money both going out and make us money on the back end,” McDonald said, noting that the county is considering various waste digester models for the project. “We’re not reinventing the wheel here.”
Howard said that Spokane-based Resource Synergy recently brought the idea before the Bonner County Solid Waste Advisory Committee. Kevin Fagan, a project associate with the company, has been working with the county to research the compost start-up’s feasibility.
“We project that this will not only eliminate a significant amount of food waste, but also save the county money in hauling its food,” Fagan told commissioners and members of the public at the board’s June 22 business meeting.
“Ideally this pilot project is successful and economically feasible for the first two years,” he said, “and it can continue to make the county money after that.”
