County to seek site for compost facility

Want to expand organics collection 

BY Maija Hoggett Barrie Advance Jul 05, 2012 

SIMCOE COUNTY – An expanded organics program could be in the future for Simcoe County residents if plans for a county processing facility work out. 

Simcoe County staff is looking into building an organics processing facility that would allow for the addition of pet waste, diapers and feminine hygiene products to the program.

“They make up a significant tonnage in our existing garbage stream, so if we’re able to bring those out and bring them into a diversion program we can help our diversion numbers and we can look for a much higher diversion program,” said Rob McCullough, Simcoe County solid waste management director.

“Working that through with the province will be an interesting process because that material comes along with a lot of plastic products so there’s more specialized technology in removing the plastics and allowing the processing to work properly and end up with a decent end product.”

A county facility isn’t a done deal yet. At this point, staff has just been given the go-ahead to look into it more. That will mean hiring a new internal staff member to run the project.

McCullough said the county will also be working with a consultant to move ahead with picking preferred sites and preparing a request for proposal (RFP) for the technical aspects of the facility.

The proposed price tag is $35 million and at least 40 acres is needed to house it.

That’s because (the consultant) wants to do it right from the beginning, and we agree, said McCullough about the hefty cost.

He explained doing the project right includes ensuring odour controls and a reasonably-sized lot are in place to reduce any off-site impacts.

“The consultant realizes through this process that odour concerns are the major issues when it comes to this sort of plant so they put a lot of work into ensuring the proper processes are outlined to ensure against that off-site odour and impact controls,” he said.

As for the location of the facility, that is yet to be determined.

“The county does own some significant tracts of land, those would definitely be under consideration, but by no means are those the only ones we’re going consider at this point,” said McCullough.

For the rest of this year, having staff move ahead with the project will cost about $30,000.

There was some talk at the June county council meeting about putting off the item until the 2013 budget deliberations, however that didn’t sit well with the majority of council.

“We’re at a point now where we have a chance to get going and the sooner the better,” said Adjala-Tosorontio Mayor Tom Walsh. “This isn’t going to happen overnight so the sooner we get at it the better.”

Clearview Mayor Ken Ferguson chairs the corporate services committee that deals with waste management and he is eager to get moving on an organic processing facility, noting there’s a lot of work to do.

“I don’t like sitting back and doing nothing,” he said.

Right now the county’s organics program is capturing 11,000 tonnes per year. If the pet waste, diapers and feminine hygiene items could be added, it’s anticipated that will increase to 20,000 tonnes per year.

“The diapers and the pet waste, everyone can understand that the material in there is absolutely organic and therefore can be composted,” said McCullough. “A lot of people have heard about programs such as they have in York and in Toronto that accept those in the green bin material and are hoping that we’ll be able to do that as well.”

Currently the county’s organics are being trucked to a facility in Hamilton. There are about 1.5 years left in the county’s five-year contract with the plant.

Knowing that a local facility is a possible, McCullough said staff will consider that when negotiating a new contract.

An organics facility also won’t impact the new, seven-year waste collection contract recently inked, which starts next year.

Knowing the county’s organics program will be expanding will be a help the contractor, BFI Canada, according to McCullough.

“They’ll just know going into the purchase of their equipment that they will have more and more organics coming through,” he said. That will likely mean instead of having an 80/20 split on the trucks (80 per cent garbage and 20 per cent organics), there will likely be a 70/30 split.

As the facility will be built to process more organic material than is generated in Simcoe County, there is the opportunity to accept material from other municipalities.

While McCullough hasn’t talked to Barrie and Orillia politicians, partnerships with the cities are a possibility – especially Barrie.

“Barrie doesn’t have a hard contract for their processing. They leave it to the contractor who does the collection to do the processing, so I think they may be in a better spot to potentially be a customer,” McCullough said.