Regina’s landfill will serve as the city’s temporary outdoor composting facility until EverGen can find a new location, following the rural municipality of Edenwold rejecting its application to build one within its boundaries.
Mateo Ocejo, EverGen’s director of organics warned the solution is only temporary given a lack of infrastructure to support the operation.
“This is going to be future landfill space and so you know, we have a limited footprint up here,” Ocejo said. “We don’t have the utilities, we don’t have the building, it’s harder for our staff to operate. We can do it for a year, but eventually we’re going to need more infrastructure.”
The facility is planned to save the city money by converting roughly 24 to 23 per cent of compost waste and recycling.
The R.M. of Edenwold rejected their application on December 4, after residents expressed concerns around the smell.
Although, at the temporary location, Ocejo said the composting smell is mostly contained with Gore-Tex, a waterproof fabric membrane which he said reduces the odour by about 97 percent. The permanent facility is planned to be indoors and will have an additional layer of odour protection with a bio filter.