'Groundbreaking' waste initiative aims to divert 90 per cent of Wetaskiwin waste from landfill
The County of Wetaskiwin is partnering with a Nova Scotia company on a project to transform waste into valuable resources and divert most of its waste away from landfills.
The project with Sustane Technologies Inc. aims to create the "first end to end circular waste solution of its kind in the province," according to a news release.
"They were by far the most advanced and more looking towards what we wanted to do, we weren't really that interested in burning the garbage, which is one option," said Josh Bishop, the reeve of Wetaskiwin County.
"We started looking at this really for economic development reasons, looking to add some revenue sources for the county as well as provide some jobs, and we're also looking at recycling.
"So that was one of the things our residents have been asking us for is more diversion of certain things from the landfill and these guys provide a solution to all of that."
Sustane will separate the waste, break down the paper and cardboard back into fibres and shrink and harden the plastics, which can be remade into other plastic products, rather than burying or burning it, according to Peter Vinall, the CEO of Sustane.
"This project aims for up to 90 per cent diversion and recovery rate of municipal solid waste from landfills, which will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by two to three tonnes for every tonne of waste produced," according to the release.
"Roughly 50 per cent of garbage is paper and cardboard, food, diapers, that sort of thing, and we can turn that into multiple products," Vinall said. "One, it's an ideal feedstock to make renewable natural gas…We were fortunate to gain Canadian Food Inspection Agency approval to use that biomass across Canada as a fertilizer.
"The third one, which is probably the least favourable, is just a fuel, a clean fuel like wood, a carbon neutral fuel."
Normally, the process of using thermal hydrolysis to cook garbage is expensive and low efficiency, but Sustane's newer automated process will be cheaper overall than landfills, according to Vinall.
"We can extract enough value from the biogenic part, by taking it to renewable natural gas or fertilizer, plus the diesel and (parts) that go back into plastic, we can create enough value there that we can operate with a lower tipping fee less than the cost of landfilling," Vinall said.
"But not at small-scale, we've got to be at a reasonable scale, and so the more communities we can get to learn about what we're doing, sign up to be a part of it, then it's better for everyone."
The project is expected to cost around $60 million and the county hopes it will become a source of revenue.
"We're looking at a plant of about 200,000 tonnes capacity, we only need 10,000 tons to do our own," Bishop said. "We're providing a solution for the entire area and there'll be a revenue stream that goes along with that."
The project in Wetaskiwin is one of the first ones for Sustane outside of Nova Scotia, though they hope to keep expanding across North America in the future. The county is hoping the timeline for the project will be relatively short.
"It's a little bit different than a typical landfill, which would require years of consulting and approvals and permits," Bishop said. "With the unit that they're going to be developing here it's so clean, you'd hardly even know that it was a transfer station or anything of that sort.
"We're hoping that we can get the approvals rather quickly and be up and running within a couple of years," he added.
"This solution will provide us ample time to figure out the next solution down the road, but for right now, we can start diverting 90 per cent (of waste) away from the landfill. That's a good thing."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.