Waste and Recycling Centre. (Photo by Ron Garnett / Airscapes.ca)

By David Opinko

Permit approved for Lethbridge’s new commercial composting facility

Apr 7, 2021 | 11:15 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge County has given the go-ahead for the City of Lethbridge to expand its composting capabilities.

The city applied for a development permit back in February which was approved by county council at their April 1 meeting.

Joel Sanchez, General Manager of Waste and Recycling for the city, says they plan to spend approximately $5,530,000 to create a 14,520 square foot facility at the Waste & Recycling Centre north of the community.

It will allow organizations in the industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) sector to have a place to send food waste and other organic materials to be composted.

“That will receive food and yard waste from the ICI sector and that will be turned into compost material that can be reused within the city, within farms around the city, etc.”

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The city will construct a receiving building, a row of composting bunkers, and a concrete pad, but what he is most excited about is the depackager.

Grocery stores, for example, can bring food that has gone bad but is still in its package and have it be turned into useful materials.

“We will be able to separate the materials, the packaging, from the food component. That material will go through a mixer where we’re going to mix the organics with green material like yard waste or grass clippings, etc. Then after that, it’s going to go into what we call the compost process.”

Sanchez estimates that about 70 per cent of all waste being produced in the city is from ICI organizations. This initiative is expected to divert at least 10,000 tonnes of waste per year from the landfill.

The city is working with a local research centre to see if they would be able to use the composted materials in local farms. The compost will be sold to farms, businesses, and residents in and around Lethbridge.

Sanchez has also been in discussions with local haulers about getting on the compost program as they handle waste collection for about 85 per cent of ICI businesses.

“By providing a compost solution, the expectation is that the tipping fee for organics materials will be lower than the normal waste or garbage tipping fees at the landfill, so that’s another incentive for people to divert the materials because it’s cheaper to send the materials for composting than to send it to the landfill cell for garbage.”

Now that the development permit for ICI composting has been approved by the county, construction will start in May and ICI composting could start in early 2022.

As for residential compost collection, city council will vote on final approval in May.