The curbside organics being collected from residents and businesses in Guelph, Ontario are now heading for processing in the city’s recently-opened in-vessel composting facility. Designed to handle the annual processing of 30,000 tonnes of organic residuals, the City of Guelph’s $32.8-million facility, utilizing in-vessel composting technology from the Christiaens Group, was designed and built by Maple Reinders with the AIM Environmental Group being responsible for ongoing operations, including the marketing of finished product. BIOREM Inc. supplied the biofiltration odour management system.
Since 2006, following the closure of the Guelph’s former composting plant, organic residuals had been shipped to an energy-from-waste facility in New York State. With a return to centralized composting, the City is expected to realize a 10 percent increase in waste diversion, enabling the achievement of its overall diversion target of 55 per cent by 2012.
“I am thrilled to be standing here at the official opening of Guelph’s new Organic Waste Processing Facility,” declared Karen Farbridge, Mayor of the City of Guelph at the facility opening on September 27, 2011.
“As of today, Guelph is reclaiming its position as a waste management leader. As of today, we are once again taking care of our own organic waste in our own community.”
“Instead of simply ‘getting rid of’ our organic waste, we are treating it as a resource by returning it to the earth as compost…. And, we are showing responsible leadership by building much-needed composting capacity in this region and in this province.
“I can say with no exaggeration, this (the opening of the new facility) is one of my proudest moments as the Mayor of the City of Guelph,” said Farbridge.“
