ReFUSE What You Don’t Use: A Dive Into Organics Recovery on Vancouver Island

January 27, 2022

ReFUSE is helping us move one step closer to a zero-waste economy by making sure every food scrap, napkin, and blade of grass enters a loop that transforms them into nutrient-rich compost.  

 ReFUSE, part of Emterra Group, is a full-service organics recovery division on Vancouver Island, B.C., offering composting services to commercial businesses like restaurants, special events, institutions and Victoria residents. 

No one likes a smelly bin, so drivers leave the loading docks each morning loaded up with clean, washed totes to deliver to our customers to replace those that require collection. On any given day, a driver will load as many as 50 to 75 clean totes and exchange them in the field for the same number of collected totes. 

Once collected, organics are returned to our loading docks, tipped into a large collection area, transferred to 40-yard sealed trailers, and hauled to an organics processing facility on southern Vancouver Island.  The organic materials are processed and developed into premium compost for fertilizing and enriching gardens, landscaping, flower beds and planters, and even golf greens!  

On average, we collect and transfer upwards of 100 to 120 tonnes of organics per month which is about 5,500 kg each workday. 

ReFUSE has a close-knit team of six drivers, two wash dock workers and a warehouse person whom all work to service our base of approximately 400 Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional customers.

Diverting food and yard waste from the landfill helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions since these materials release methane and carbon dioxide when they decompose. When food and yard waste are composted into soil, they release less greenhouse gases; this promotes healthy plant life and fertile soil rich with nutrients.  

If you live in Victoria, tell your friends and family to take advantage of reFUSE and get composting! If you are outside the Victoria area, contact your municipality to see what composting services they offer. 

 “The best part about working at reFUSE is providing a unique, premium service that reaches out to our customers’ immediate locations and enables us to make a difference by educating and assisting the end-user to recycle responsibly and efficiently,” says John Vogelgesang, Operations Manager at ReFUSE Resource Recovery. 

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