Three updated bylaws in the town of Vernon, B.C. aim to further deter residents from feeding wildlife, even unintentionally. Made official this Wednesday, the rules mandate that residents protect animal attractants on their property, such as fruit and nut trees, bird feeders, and compost piles.
In a release, the City of Vernon stated that regulations “are expected to reduce unintended negative consequences to wildlife, reduce damage to private property by animals, and reduce the potential for human-wildlife conflict.” The province’s Wildlife Act already considers feeding wildlife an offence, but the Vernon bylaws go a step further to include unintentional or neglectful behaviour, like leaving attractants exposed. Violations can come with a fine, but the statement noted that education is “the preferred method to gain compliance.”
Located about an hour’s drive from Kelowna, Vernon is surrounded by extensive wildland areas, and is home to wildlife common to the Okanagan region, such as deer, cougars, and black bears. Given the location of some residential areas, “it’s common to see wildlife travelling through neighbourhoods,” Christy Poirier, a communications manager for the city said via email.
Poirier said over the years, residents have been raising concerns about people intentionally feeding animals such as deer, drawing them closer into the city. Feeding wildlife can cause a number of problems, such as having animals become dependent on human food, and making them habituated—which can increase the risk of a dangerous encounter.
Black bears are of particular concern in Vernon; last year, the city was among the five ‘deadliest’ BC communities for the animal, based on provincial data showing how many bears were put down by conservation officers.
Any area where humans and wildlife coexist can be vulnerable to these issues—be sure to stay informed on how to protect attractants from bears and other animals on your property, and what to do if you do encounter larger animals like bears or cougars close by.
We’ve been composting from the future for a few months now, and while Pela’s Lomi works extremely well at turning old food into dirt, it also suffers from a few issues that make it not work well with all kitchens.
The basic premise is that you fill this machine up with scrap food and compostable plastics, and then overnight, it tumbles the debris with heat to dehydrate and break down old food into a dirt-like substance.
On its website, Lomi calls this plant-friendly dirt, but it advertises itself as a composter. That said, experts sourced in a New York Times article claimed the Lomi isn’t technically a compost since the process of drying debris out takes away most of the nutrients. However, some nutrients are still present, so it might be better for your plants than random dirt, but it’s not going to allow you to revamp a garden in a short period.
Yeah, this is a real ad from the company – in Toronto, at least, none of this is accurate.
Where the Lomi really shines is how easy it makes cleaning up. Usually, I keep my compost in a bag in the freezer so it doesn’t smell, but being able to just toss scraps from a cutting board or plate straight into the Lomi was an exercise in convenience — especially since it doesn’t smell once the lid is locked on.
However, that convenience ends when you want to compost items like bones, fruit pits, nut shells, bioplastics and other things that can’t go into the smart composter or need to be altered before they go in. This means I still need to keep a backup compost bag in the freezer and use it a few times a week. This isn’t the end of the world, but it starts to paint a picture of the Lomi not being as seamless as it portrays itself.
The accessories
Other things that you need to manage are the charcoal filters, the time of each round and if you need to add any boosters to your cycle.
Lomi comes with enough charcoal to get you through the first 3-6 months of use, but after that, it costs $30 USD (roughly $40 CAD) or more to fill it up to help manage the smell. You can also use a subscription that costs $26 (roughly $31 CAD) every three months, so you’ll always have fresh charcoal. There’s also a light on the machine that notifies you when it’s time to swap out. It’s not hard to do, but putting dusty black charcoal into a stark white device means there’s going to be a lot of wiping down after.
The other accessory is called LomiPods. These are small tablets that you can add to a Lomi cycle to give the dirt it creates added nutrients so it can actually be used as a compost substitute. These cost $35 USD (about $47 CAD) and come with enough tablets for 90 cycles. The company claims that the microorganisms within these pods help break down food. When you use them, you also have to keep the Lomi in ‘Grow mode.’ This takes more time (16-20 hours) but uses less heat to keep said organisms alive.
Three types of food crushing
This Grow Mode is actually the only real compost-like solution the Lomi offers. The fastest setting is ‘Eco-Express Mode,’ which takes between 3-5 hours to break down your food waste. There are more limitations regarding what can go in this mode, and the company says that you can add this dirt to a real compost pile, bin or standard trash instead of directly to plants. This means the device will shrink your food waste but not really deal with it.
The next mode is called ‘Lomi Approved.’ This cycle-type takes from 5 to 8 hours and works with most types of scraps. Once again, the company doesn’t recommend adding this to plants; especially since this mode allows bioplastics.
Grow Mode runs for 16-20 hours, and it uses less heat when it’s trying to break down the food to retain as many nutrients as possible. This seems like the mode you’d want to use all the time, but the Lomi is quite loud, so we found the quick overnight modes that can run while you’re sleeping more useful.
The smart kitchen appliance isn’t intrusively loud, but it reminded us of the gentle rumble you might hear when the dishwasher is running. It’s loud enough that you can hear it but not loud enough to disrupt any of the other rooms in my apartment. Ideally, because of this, it seems like the type of thing that might be better off in the basement, but having to ferry compost up and down the stairs a couple of times a day gets old fast.
Keeping it on the counter is a good option, but it takes up about as much space as a microwave, and you can’t stack anything on top of it. With this in mind, if you live in an apartment with limited kitchen space, the device could be really out of place. If you have ample counter space, this won’t be an issue, but small kitchens, be warned.
Is the Lomi for you?
At the end of the day, the ad embedded above from the company paints a somewhat clear picture of who the Lomi is for: people who can’t compost.
The City of Toronto has a relatively robust composting system, and many people have backyard composters, so the Lomi definitely isn’t for everyone. It’s too much of a hassle to remember what can go in, where the dirt can and can’t go in the end, and having to listen to it.
Sure it’s kind of gross to have to carry a frozen bag of compost for one minute outside to the compost bin and then drag the bin to the curb once a week, but in the end, it’s easier than using a Lomi and takes up a lot less counter space.
If you live in a place without a composting program or don’t have access to a place to naturally compost, the Lomi is a decent option. But even then, the energy it takes to dehydrate your food scraps every night might be an issue for the eco-conscious market this device is aimed at.
The Lomi is a weird product. It markets itself as a composter, but the more you dig into it, the less it seems to compost. When we first got this machine, we didn’t know about all the limitations, and it seemed wonderful, but the more we used it and found out how only the Grow Mode makes compost, its flaws started to be revealed.
A European water and waste company is starting a pilot project to recycle disposable diapers into new plastic, compost and biogas, in an environmentally-conscious effort to divert them from landfills, reports Le Parisien.
Called the Happy Nappy program, the pilot project will collect used diapers and crush them down so that they can be separated into their various parts. The plastic coating will be recycled into new plastic, with the organic waste – which makes up 50 to 70 percent of the waste matter – used for biogas and compost
"On average, a baby will require 6,000 nappies in the first two years of life. None of this is currently recycled," said a statement from Suez Environnement, the company in charge of the project.
The pilot program will cost about $491,000. Suez has received 40 percent of the funding from the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, as part of a 2009 call for eco-industrial project bids.
