Sophiasburgh property preferred site to manage organic waste

The County has chosen the rear portion of the Sophiasburgh Works garage property as the preferred location for a proposed site to manage organic waste.

The municipality will present preliminary results of the organics management feasibility study at a public information centre Wednesday, Oct. 30 at the Sophiasburgh Town Hall (2771 County Road 5, Demorestville) between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The Sophiasburgh site at 35 County Road 14 was chosen over North Marysburgh (at the intersection of County roads 13 and 8); the Hallowell pit at 149 County Road 1; Ridge Road at 470 Ridge Road and at 403 Shannon Road.

The study also recommends aerated covered static pile composting for the facility, a system used to biodegrade the organic material without physical manipulation. The advantage of this system is said to be its efficiency and ability to mitigate odours near the site.

At Wednesday’s public meeting, staff are expected to provide information on potential site layouts, the proposed technology and the mitigation of potential impacts. Attendees can ask questions about the process and provide feedback.

The public input is to be included in the final report to be presented to council at a future meeting. At that time, council would decide whether to move forward with constructing the facility.

In 2022, council directed staff to prepare a study to evaluate having such a facility. The idea was to decrease reliance on external management sites, and reduce increasing fixed costs associated with disposing of organics.

The municipality reports $250,000 to $300,000 is spent every year to pick up and dispose of some 780 tonnes of food waste in curbside collection.

Three public information meetings were held in March to share information about the five proposed sites. At the meetings, Albert Paschkowiak, the County’s environmental services and sustainability supervisor, was accompanied by Axita Patel, a solid waste planner with consulting firm GHD from Mississauga.

At the Picton meeting, Paschkowiak explained the creation of a facility was being explored because of the substantial costs associated with dealing with organics.

““It is a significant expense to the municipality every year to fill those green bins, and take them away, and have the material just disappear,” said Paschkowiak, stating that the idea was to investigate whether the disposal of organic waste could be done in the County, and for less money.”

He also spoke to the problem with putting organic waste in with regular garbage.

“That’s a problem, it generates green house gas emissions. It wastes space in current landfills, and we all know space is at a premium, so we can’t afford to just throw it away.”

Municipalities are required by the province to have a system for organic waste and must maintain, or improve it. The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks’ goal is set at 50 per cent waste diversion by 2030. The last report from the County (2021) was that its diversion rate was slightly below the provincial average, but exceeded the provincial goal of 30 per cent.

The curbside green bin pickup and disposal program for the County cost $319,000 in 2021 (half to collect, half to haul to a compost facility) – funded entirely by taxes. That year it was stated an estimate of about 60 per cent of County households put a green bin curbside.

The report stated 44 per cent of respondents do not wish to transition to home composting from curbside green bins. Of the respondents, 62 per cent use the green bin program weekly, with almost 24 per cent generating more than half, or a full green bin. It was noted those who live in apartments or do not own their property, are not easily able to compost. Just over half noted they could compost on their property – 24 per cent were already doing it and 19 per cent stated they would be interested in trying it.