ORGANICS RECYCLING
ANALYZING ORGANICS DIVERSION ACROSS CANADA
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s Canadian provinces and territories set more aggressive organics diversion and waste reduction related goals, additional organics management infrastructure will be needed to achieve those goals. That’s one of the conclusions reached in a recent analysis conducted by the Environmental Research and Education Foundation of Canada (EREF-Canada). According to EREF-Canada, results from this latest study fill in a number of informational gaps. Researchers looked at all 10 provinces and three territories, analyzing each in order to get a clear understanding of the organic waste policies and approval/permitting regimes in each one, and a sense of organic waste diversion program availability across the entire country. Another major goal of the project was to better understand the total number of operational organic waste processing facilities in Canada, along with their capacities and tonnes processed. For the purposes of the study, organic waste was defined as food waste that is uneaten and discarded, as well as inedible wastes such as scraps, agricultural waste (e.g. manure),
Most provinces do not have sufficient processing capacity to address larger volumes, or more complicated materials like source-separated organics.
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biosolids (organic material recycled from sewage) and leaf and yard waste (including grass clippings, yard and garden debris). The report also focused on residential, industrial, commercial and institutional organic waste diversion. It did not take into consideration unknown volumes of organic waste that might be applied directly back on to the land where it was produced (in agriculture, for example), residential backyard composting, or waste processing methods such as lime stabilization, fermentation and pasteurization.
ADEQUATE CAPACITY
EREF-Canada’s analysis found that most provinces (with the exception of the Territories and some very remote areas) have adequate processing capacity to manage basic biodegradable materials like leaf and yard waste. For example, collectively there is enough processing capacity to handle 2.66 million tonnes of basic biodegradable organics at open-air, static pile and windrow facilities in Canada. However, most provinces do not have sufficient processing capacity to address larger volumes, or more complicated materials like source-separated organics. Based on a calculation of 3.08 million tonnes of available processing capacity for in-vessel and anaerobic digestion facilities, EREF’s analysis shows that we are at that capacity, and have a relatively small amount of buffer. In addition, the study found that compost facilities were predominantly responsible for managing the bulk of Canada’s organic waste generated. Of the 4.83 million tonnes of organic waste processed in Canada in 2019, 72 percent of it was processed by compost facilities. EREF-Canada calculates that, on average, compost facilities process 10,611 tonnes of organic waste yearly. However, this reflects a wide range of facility sizes and processing capabilities, ranging from 50 tonnes to 150,000 tonnes. Anaerobic
