Hamilton’s composting plant to resume operations at one-third capacity

Hamilton’s Central Composting Facility (CCF) is returning to action.

It will be processing organic materials for the first time in more than seven months on Monday as it resumes scaled-back operations.

The city says the CCF will be processing at a rate equivalent to one-third of peak capacity, or 20,000 annual tonnes.

The facility was operating at full capacity, approximately 60,000 tonnes per year, when it was temporarily shut down on June 24, 2018, in response to odour complaints in the surrounding east-end neighbourhoods.

The city says it has made several operational improvements in order to resume composting at the CCF, which include accepting and processing only material from Hamilton, and hiring a company to patrol surrounding neighbourhoods for air-quality impacts.

There will also be a ban, beginning April 1, 2019, on grass and leaf and yard waste from the city’s green bins.

It will have to be put at the curb using a paper yard waste bag or other clearly marked open-top reusable rigid container. The ban is meant to stop ammonia, which is a potential contributor to poor air quality, from being introduced during composting.

The CCF’s processing rate will be increased to 40,000 tonnes, or two-thirds of capacity, once a number of capital upgrades have been completed.

Those include installation of an acid scrubber to assist in the removal of ammonia, an extension of the bio-filter exhaust stack from 30 metres to 50 metres and installation of a carbon filtration system.