Delta has tentatively agreed to a partnership with an East Ladner turf farm that had previously been at odds with the municipality.

At a workshop last month, West Coast Instant Lawns presented a proposal to civic politicians that will see the 72nd Street company process Delta's organic green waste.

The deal, which has been sent to Metro Vancouver for approval, would involve green waste, including yard and grass clippings, processed at the plant. As well as providing residents free dumping of green waste, the company would also provide Delta a reduced price for topsoil purchases.

Coun. Robert Campbell told the Optimist Delta is asking the regional district to give the company approval to handle municipal green waste for a trial period, while the longer term plan would also see Delta's food waste included.

"We're moving toward being able to put our food waste out with our green waste and West Coast can deal with that when it's vegetable waste, but when you talk about food waste you're also talking about chicken bones and things like that. West Coast's permit currently won't allow them to deal with that, so they need to amend their permit and they also need permission just to take our green waste," explained Campbell.

Currently, Delta can drop off a certain amount of green waste at the Vancouver Landfill for free. Anything above that limit is trucked to a facility in Richmond.

"We're being asked to enter into a longer term contract with that facility but there's no guarantee Vancouver and other jurisdictions won't overwhelm that facility and we'd have to look elsewhere anyway," said Campbell, noting Westcoast Instant Lawns would take the green waste at no cost to Delta, whereas the municipality has to pay to truck the waste to Richmond.

"It's a big savings, we've calculated it to be at least $200,000. It could be between there and a half-million (dollars) a year," he said.

Campbell said a trial is currently taking place where composted food waste is being accepted in Ladner, but in the not too distant future the regional district will mandate a food waste collection program for all communities. The Delta plan would eventually see regular garbage picked up from households every two weeks while green waste, mixed with food waste, would be picked up weekly at no limit, said Campbell. He noted the Richmond facility currently doesn't process food waste.

Representatives from Westcoast Instant Lawns told councillors it's a "win-win, made-in-Delta solution." They also said they collected 95 signatures of support for the business plan, mostly from the areas that previously had been affected by smells from the operation.

Operations manager Pat Martin told the Optimist the deal would solve a big problem the company has in trying to find a steady supply of green waste to use for its operations.

"We're just not allowed to receive a tree branch from Delta," he said.

The company currently buys chipped green waste from places as far as away as Squamish and Hope.

"There's a large quantity of that material sitting on Delta's curbside every week we can't take," said Martin.

As far as food waste, the company currently only accepts processed fruits and vegetables and materials from greenhouses, said Martin, noting the amount of food waste they'll accept from Delta at first will be small.

West Coast Instant Lawns already has the equipment ready to start processing food materials, so will be ready once food waste recycling becomes mandatory, added Martin.

No specific details regarding traffic impacts were included in the partnership proposal.