A big black tube on Salt Spring Island is diverting tonnes of organic waste

It's all black, about 10 metres long and two metres high and slowly turning Salt Spring Island's commercial organic waste into a steaming-hot, rich soil-booster.

It's the new composter on the Southern Gulf Islands' largest and most populous island — the product of years of work to solve a problem that small communities across B.C. face: how to deal with offal from meat producers and other compostable waste from businesses like restaurants and grocery stores?

"So make use of waste and not let it rot or create greenhouse gases ... but make a valuable resource of it," said Georg Janssen with the Salt Spring Abattoir Society.

Located at the Burgoyne Valley Community Farm, the composter has been up and running for about a year and

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