A local landfill plans to build a big new composter now that it's won the contract to handle St. Albert's organic waste.
City officials announced this week they had awarded a $1.5-million, five-year contract for organic waste disposal to the Roseridge Waste Management Services Commission.
Council voted last June to bring in fully automated waste collection plus a curbside kitchen and yard (organic) waste program. Both are set to kick in June 1.
The city expects to ship about 5,000 tonnes of organic waste to Roseridge for composting a year, said Christian Benson, St. Albert's solid waste management co-ordinator, equivalent to about half of what it currently dumps as trash in landfills.
The change could boost the city's waste diversion rate to 61 per cent from 41, according to the 2008 solid waste system review and the 2009 state of the environment report. The city is aiming to keep 65 per cent of its trash out of the landfill by 2020 under its environmental master plan.
The new contract will mean big changes at Roseridge, says manager Susan Berry. It plans to start construction on a large, industrial-strength composter for St. Albert and Sturgeon County's organic waste sometime next year.
Roseridge had planned to stick with regular yard waste composting, which requires less equipment. But Berry said St. Albert's contract pushed them to think big. "Without this volume [of waste], we couldn't do what we're planning to do."
Big plans
The Roseridge landfill is about two kilometres east of Morinville and collects trash and yard waste from throughout Sturgeon County. It handles about 50,000 tonnes of material a year, Berry says, and has about 50 years of capacity left.
The landfill plans to take most forms of organic waste, Berry says, including grass clippings, food scraps, pizza boxes, cotton balls and feathers. "It includes just about everything," she says, except for diapers, soap, and feminine hygiene products. "People's garbage stream should just about disappear."
Roseridge has an open-windrow system for composting yard waste, Berry says, and plans to use it to handle St. Albert's kitchen waste for this year.
An open windrow system will definitely smell, says Christina Seidel, executive director of the Recycling Council of Alberta, but you can control that smell with careful management. "It's the perfect site, in a way," she says of Roseridge, as it's far from civilization and already in the middle of a landfill.
Roseridge plans to frequently mix and monitor its compost piles for its first year of operation to keep odours in check, Berry says. It plans to build and switch to an indoor composting facility with odour controls in 2012. "To most people, the facility will look like an agricultural Quonset [hut]."
The outdoor piles should have enough thermal mass to not freeze during the winter, Seidel says — Whitehorse, Yukon has used outdoor piles for years without trouble. Even if they do freeze, it's not likely the cold will wreck the composting process. "It just slows it down."
Next steps
Roseridge is now finalizing its plans for the composter with Alberta Environment, Berry says. Once it's operational, the landfill hopes to start collecting organic waste from throughout Sturgeon County.
The city still has to find a contractor to collect its organic waste, Benson says, and is waiting for bids on its contract for the organic waste bins. A full list of what will and won't be accepted for composting will soon go up on the city's website.
Any questions should go to Benson at 780-418-6699.
