$35 million composting facility may be election issue

Time for diaper manufacturers to change their ways?

By Kate Harries

A proposed $35 million composting facility is likely to become an issue in this year’s municipal election after Simcoe County councillors last month approved a plan to move forward with the project.

Contentious issues will include the cost – is the high-tech facility envisioned by staff justifiable and affordable, or can a lower-tech version do the job? – as well as whether the onus should be on diaper manufacturers to clean up their act. The plastic in diapers is a problem in the organic stream.

And of course, there’s the matter of where will the facility go? A closed dumpsite, Site 12 in Clearview Township, is one location that may be under consideration although any decision is a couple of years away, with the first report on siting selection and criteria not due until February, 2015. Construction is to be completed by October 2018, a staff report states.

Oro-Medonte Mayor Harry Hughes, who’s also the county’s deputy warden, cautioned against any decisions at this time.

“Everyone always is in support of recycling until we decide where it’s going to go,” he told his fellow councillors at a meeting January 28.

“And then all of a sudden there’s a group of people usually that provide pushback in terms of it being a great system elsewhere,” he said, noting that a timeline proposed in a staff report provides for a public information session in June and a report in October.

The municipal election is to be held October 27, 2014.

“We will face the meeting just prior to the election where somewhere some community is going to get stirred up,” Hughes warned.

But Midland Deputy Mayor Stephan Kramp disagreed. “I think that the timing of reports here are actually very beneficial. The fact that this is right in the election cycle will allow our residents to understand what’s going on.”

Based on what they hear from candidates, voters will make a decision on the composition of the next council “because this is a big issue,” Kramp said. “And I’m sure some of us won’t be here as a result of that discussion.”

Solid waste management director Rob McCullough told Hughes that staff were “observant of what we believe is a political timeline on this,” and pointed out that the report in October will merely summarize public input. “It’s the next number of politicians that will be sitting in this council chamber in February … that are going to provide the input we need as to what evaluation criteria needs to be put forward for the siting part of this program.”

While most councillors responded positively to the staff recommendations, there were some who had reservations.

Kramp was outspoken in his belief that the project as proposed will be “an incredible waste of taxpayers’ money.” He cited the number of uncertainties in the staff report. “Are you aware of the fact that you used the word hopefully 12 times?” he asked McCullough.

The uncertainties include:

-Whether the province will approve a plan to accept pet waste in the first phase, low-tech aerobic facility is to be built. Aerobic composting is a biological process that includes a high-temperature phase that reduces or eliminates pathogens and weed seeds.

-Whether the county can find partners (Barrie and Orillia have been mentioned) to build up to the 30,000 tonnes a year that’s estimated as the minimum amount required for the high-tech anaerobic technology that is to be added in Phase2. Anaerobic digestion is a biological process that occurs in the absence of oxygen and, according to the county staff report, “is the currently accepted technology for processing feedstock which includes diapers and sanitary products.”

-Whether there will be a market for the biogas that could offset the cost of an anaerobic facility

Currently, the county collects 11,000 tonnes of organics a year,

“Twelve ‘hopefullys’ is not really the definitive statement that this council wants to rely on to make a decision of this magnitude,” Kramp said. As for partnering with Barrie and Orillia, he pointed out that they are moving ahead with their own plans – Orillia does its own composting already, and Barrie voted last fall to move to bi-weekly pickup.

Adjala-Tosorontio Deputy Mayor Mary Small Brett asked why there is no push to require diaper manufacturers to change their ways. This is a situation for extended producer responsibility, she said, pointing out that there are compostable plastic bags, and there should be pressure on diaper manufacturers to produce 100 per cent compostable products.

Kramp concurred. Simcoe County taxpayers should not have to pay the “phenomenal” cost of a high-tec plant when there isn’t the volume to support it, he said, and when the province should take the lead by mandating extended producer responsibility for diaper manufacturers.

The county sends 4,500 tonnes a year of diapers and pet waste to landfill.

“If we shift those costs back to the producers, you will bet that within three months, they will have diapers that will be able to go into the organics group because they will change the plastics,” Kramp said. “And that will resolve it.”

Simcoe County ships its 11,000 tonnes of organics annually to the AIM facility in Niagara at a cost (including transport) of $138 a tonne.  It’s estimated that about 40 per cent of the approximately 50,000 tonnes of garbage Simcoe County sends to landfill annually is made up of organics that homeowners could have separated out.

The January 28 staff report estimates that, with an anaerobic central composting facility and a tonnage of 30,000 tonnes a year, the cost will be $160 per tonne.

It is felt that a composting facility that will take those items would set the stage for scheduling curb side garbage pickup every other week, and that would significantly boost participation in recycling and organics programs.

(Under a staff recommendation voted down by county council in September 2011, bi-weekly collection would have included weekly pickup of organics. However councillors felt homeowners couldn’t handle having to store pet waste and diapers for two weeks).

According to a 2012 report by consultant Genivar the cost of organic digestion in an aerobic system would be between $94 and $154 a tonne. There’s no estimate of the capital cost of an aerobic facility without the anaerobic component.

Previous coverage

Has County wasted a year on waste issue?