Photo courtesy The Food Cycler/Facebook

Fort Frances residents are being asked to help pilot an alternative to composting.

Two hundred people are wanted to trial a small kitchen appliance called the FoodCycler than can turn waste food into compost in your home.

“It will take your food scraps, and in eight hours or less, it will reduce the volume of your food waste by 90% and leave you with a beneficial biomass that can be used in gardening applications in lieu of fertilizer. It has all of the nutrients from your food to enrich your garden soil,” says Christina Zardo, the Director of Municipal Solutions with FoodCycle Science.

The company is teaming up with the town on the project.

Zard says the goal is to determine how much food waste can be diverted from landfill.

“We’re looking to find out how often they’re running the system. When you put your food scraps into the bucket of the food cycler and press the button, we’re able to calculate, based on how many cycles you’ve done, how much food waste is staying out of the landfill,” says Zardo.

“We can also extrapolate that into how many greenhouse gases we’ve aborted by not putting food waste in the landfill where it creates methane gas. We’re (also) looking to hear some feedback from residents on their overall use and enjoyment of using the food cycler as the composting alternative.”

Participating residents must pay $175 for the Foodcycler. Zardo says the unit retails for $499.00.

The town of Fort Frances is subsidizing a part of the cost, with federal funding helping to bring the cost down further.

Zardo says for 12 weeks, residents will be asked to the record their usage of the unit that will be supplied to the town.

The compost derived can be used in their gardens or pass it on to others.

“What we found is that between 70 and 80% of people will use it themselves in their garden or their potted plants. For those that don’t have access to a garden or land, or perhaps they’re not gardeners, we are setting up a partnership with the Community garden where you can drop off your byproduct.”

Foodcycle Science is running similar pilots in Red Lake, Neebing, Kenora and Terrace Bay.

The program in Fort Frances is currently about 60 per cent full.

To get involved, contact the town of Fort Frances.