A new compost program in Old Massett is about to make the earthworms jealous and greatly cut down on the amount of garbage going to landfill.

In a start-up phase this fall, capital works staff with Old Massett Village Council (OMVC) will collect food scraps from a handful of public buildings, including Chief Matthews School and the Kwiiyaans Hall.

Over the next three or four weeks, all those food scraps — meat and bones included — will be shredded, mixed with alder wood chips, and aerated in a modified 40-foot shipping container. Inside is a motorized auger to chop and churn organic waste, subfloor blowers to give it air, and filtered exhaust pipes to control the smell.

Finally, using bins and a skid steer, the crew will move batches of nearly-finished down a series of three stalls, turning it over each time until it’s finished and ready for gardening.

Richard Williams, capital works manager for the OMVC, says the overall goal is to cut down on the three truckloads of garbage that Old Massett sends to the Islands Landfill each week.

“My dream is, I only do garbage pickup once every two weeks,” Williams said.

Once they get a feel for how the new Green Mountain Technologies compost machine is working, Williams said OMVC will expand the program to door-to-door pickup in Old Massett. Each household will get a screw-top, five-gallon bucket and Williams said they’ll take “anything and everything” organic.

“This thing will even take animal bones and fish bones,” he said.

And, in a Haida Gwaii first, Old Massett will launch a door-to-door recycling pickup program at the same time. Every house will get colour-coded bags for recyclables, and all the sorting will be done in a purpose-built cube van.

Williams said it’s too early to say if OMVC might expand the compost program to collect organic waste from Masset or Tow Hill Road, but he would definitely consider it.

“That would mean I could charge, and that would help keep this program running,” he said. Capacity shouldn’t be a problem, he said, noting the compost machine can handle up to a ton of waste per day.

“This thing is going to eat up everything I throw at it.”

Calvin Jameson is president of IZWTAG, the non-profit Indigenous Zero Waste Technical Advisory Group, which is supporting the new compost pick-up program in Old Massett and recycling programs in both Old Massett and Skidegate.

“Our goal is zero waste,” said Jameson, who recently retired as public works superintendent for Lil’Wat First Nation, east of Pemberton.

In Lil’Wat, Jameson led a push to quit burying garbage on a hill above the nation’s drinking water aquifer, and to start curbside recycling and composting. Today, Lil’Wat only landfills about nine tons of garbage per month — way less than the 32 to 64 tons it used to haul.

Jameson said he did it thinking of his kids and what Lil’Wat’s water would be like in another 10 years without the change.

After years of informal talks with other Indigenous managers, Jameson co-founded IZWTAG in 2019. All the directors and staff are Indigenous and in five years, they’ve met with over half the First Nations in B.C.

For Old Massett, IZWTAG offered equipment advice, training, and help coordinating with the North Coast Regional District and a long list of stewardship groups to make sure all the recyclables get recycled.

Compared with outdoor compost systems, Jameson said closed compost systems like Old Massett’s produce compost more quickly, are easier to maintain, and avoid trouble with wildlife. Jameson and Williams saw the same system used in Shenandoah National Park, and the finished compost piles don’t attract animals.

“The bears just walk right by it,” Jameson said.

Williams said Old Massett got a good price on the $200,000 compost machine, since it was part of a group purchase arranged by IZWTAG with the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, Kwadacha Nation, Esk’etemc First Nation, Kitasoo Xai/Xais Nation, and Gitxaala Nation.

Williams said the entire compost facility — which has a heavy-duty concrete foundation, quonset roof, skid steer, stalls, and the compost machine — cost just under $1 million.

So far, the machine is the easy part, he said. Bella Bella uses the same model, and Williams got valuable tips from some trouble-shooting they had to do during start-up.

A bigger challenge was prepping the facility site near the wastewater treatment lagoons that serve Old Massett and Masset. The area has a high water table and was covered in several feet of overburden from the lagoons’ construction.

Getting hold of affordable concrete, long a problem for northern Haida Gwaii, got easier after the construction contractor, Darin Swanson, bought the only concrete mixing truck in the area.

“That’s huge,” said Williams, noting that the facility’s slab foundation has footings two feet thick and five feet deep.

Williams said the compost program will be run by one full-time staff person who will also work at OMVC’s new hydroponic farm and help with its wood-fired district heating.

Once it starts producing compost, Jameson said the program will be a big help to local gardeners, which is good timing given the high cost of vegetables.

“A lot of people are growing their own little garden now.”