County warms to sharing organics facility with Dufferin

New Tecumseth Free Press January 8, 2013

Simcoe County’s environmental services department is pushing forward with plans for an organics processing “facility developed in the County, be owned by the County with a design, build and operate arrangement with a qualified vendor” that would also include capacity for pet waste and diapers.

It’s a component of the long term strategy to deal with the green bin generated waste stream in a central location in Simcoe County, though subject sites have yet to be identified.

Essa Township, as a central location within Simcoe County, could be included on a list of prospective sites whose conditions are as follows:

-Minimum size of 40 acres (although in order to address the Ministry of the Environment’s concern with potential for odours a larger parcel is best);

-Distance to the nearest receptor, the Ministry of the Environment recommends through the Guideline for Production of Compost in Ontario that composting facilities be located as far as possible from “sensitive receptors;”

-Convenient access to transportation routes; and,

-Planning considerations.

Concurrent to that investigation are indications that Durham Region and Dufferin County are also considering developing similar waste management options, and that has opened more options for Simcoe.

A report to County council’s Corporate Services committee this week, indicates that a meeting with Dufferin County took place on November 20, 2012, and a summary of those discussions include:

Dufferin currently has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Region of York which outlines the terms of their agreement for a partnership for a source separated organics composting facility;

Dufferin has provided the land and the Region of York is covering the cost of the facility;

The facility will be built to accommodate 100,000 metric tonnes of material;

Dufferin and York account for 70,000 metric tonnes of SSO material;

There is merchant capacity for 30,000 tonnes of SSO at the Dufferin/York facility;

York has applied for funding through P3 Canada and is expecting to learn the results of the funding by March 2013;

Dufferin has indicated that they would be willing to sell the merchant capacity to the County of Simcoe;

They do not require a guarantee of material;

Dufferin expects to be breaking ground on their facility in about a year;

Dufferin has let an RFP process to determine technology, the first proponent to win the bid went into receivership, therefore the RFP process was revisited;

The results of the first RFP process indicated that an optimal facility size is in the range of 50,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes in order for the facility to make economical sense;

Dufferin staff also indicated that in their experience the cost per tonne required in order to manage diapers, pet waste and feminine hygiene products may not be worth the amount of diversion that results from including these materials (County staff note that York currently accepts these materials in their curbside program, so it is presumed that either the curbside program will need to be adjusted or the facility will be built to manage these materials).

Simcoe County’s solid waste management department is awaiting council direction as to whether pursuing a partnership with Dufferin is the preferred option.