Here’s your chance to cut your garbage in half and save water. Do your yard a big favour this coming gardening season with a new backyard composter and rain barrel.
“Backyard composting is not only rewarding, but resourceful, and easy,” says Waste Reduction Facilitator Rae Stewart with the Regional District of Central Okanagan’s Waste Reduction Office. “You can’t beat the satisfaction of making your own valuable soil enhancer for your garden, all from kitchen scraps and green matter from your yard, material you would otherwise just throw away.”
Stewart adds that almost half of household waste is easily compostable. “If you compost and recycle you could be putting as little as one or two grocery bags worth of garbage out for collection a week. That’s far less taxing on our one remaining landfill. By adding nutrient-rich compost to your garden, it’s a super booster for your soil– more robust fruits and veggies, greener lawn, healthier flowers and shrubs.”
The Regional Waste Reduction Office’s annual sale features backyard composters for $35 (tax included), big savings from the regular $80 retail price. It’s a pre-order sale only though, with a limited supply of 300 available, limit two per household.
The pre-order composter sale runs March 2 to 31, with a pickup event in your community in late April in time for gardening season.
Also back by popular demand, the Green Cone Food Digester. The Green Cone is a great compliment to a backyard composter as it takes all the other types of food waste that can’t be put into a regular composter such as meats, bones, grains, dairy and cooked food. They can even handle small amounts of dog waste too. Green Cones can also be pre-ordered starting March 2 for $100 (tax included)
Rain barrels will also be part of the sale for $78 each, again a savings to the regular $120 retail price. Only 200 will be available with a limit of two per household.
“Collecting rainwater for use in your yard has many benefits,” says Corinne Jackson, Communications Director for the Okanagan Basin Water Board. “Rainwater provides soft, fresh, untreated water for your plants. A rain barrel also helps save you money by limiting the amount of metered tap water you use on your garden.”
Stormwater pollution is also a growing concern, Jackson added. “By collecting rainwater from your roof, you limit run-off from your yard and help prevent contaminants from washing into our storm drains and ultimately into local streams and lakes. This means better drinking water, and better water for fish and everything else that depends on clean water.”
For details on the composter-rain barrel sale, to place your order, view your payment options-including online payment, or simply find out more about how to compost or build your own rain barrel, visit rdco.com/compostersale or call the Regional Waste Reduction Office at 250-469-6250.
