When green bin collection begins, Windsor-Essex food scraps will end up in Leamington

Once Ontario's mandatory organic waste diversion program begins in 2025, food scraps from Windsor-Essex homes will make their way into green bins — then to the curb — ending up at Seacliff Energy Corp. in Leamington.

The organics recycling and bioenergy facility has been in operation since 2011.

Cathy Copot-Nepszy, with Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority (EWSWA), says the green bin curbside program procured an agreement with Seacliff.

"Basically, they would receive our material and anaerobically digest it and meet the regular regulatory requirements that we're obligated to do so," said EWSWA's manager of diversion. 

The contract is for five years and gets underway in 2025.

"They're already doing this for other municipalities in Ontario, so they're adding to their repertoire," said Copot-Nepszy.

Seacliff has existing contracts with municipalities such as the City of Toronto, Halton Region, York Region and most recently signing off on a 10-year deal with Durham Region.

The Leamington facility employs 10 staff and has a large-scale anaerobic digester designed to handle a "diverse range of organic materials," according to Jason Moretto, president and CEO of Envest Corp., which owns Seacliff Energy.

"We are a recycling facility with an environmental permit to take up to 110,000 metric tonnes of waste, organic waste," he said.

Moretto says food scraps are turned into biogas, which is then transformed into renewable energies like electricity for the provincial grid, and thermal energy to heat an adjacent tomato greenhouse.

Another byproduct created is a digested organic material used to make fertilizer that is distributed to area farmers for their application on crops, he says.

"It's a completely closed [waste] loop."

As part of its agreement with the region, Seacliff Energy will subcontract and organize having the organic waste hauled by "18 wheel long haul trucks" from municipal transfer stations to its Leamington facility, according to Moretto.

While the curbside pickup responsibility remains with the municipalities.

Copot-Nepszy says procurement documents for a transfer point are being put together to "basically have less vehicles on the highway heading to Leamington."

In 2018, the province put out a policy statement related to food and organic waste, which included plans to require municipalities to have a solution for organic waste diversion by 2025. Targets and inclusion are based on the size of a municipality's population.

The City of Windsor must divert 70 per cent of its organic waste from landfills via green bin curbside collection. Leamington, Amherstburg, LaSalle and Tecumseh have to divert 50 per cent.

Based on their population size, Kingsville, Essex and Lakeshore do not have mandatory diversion targets. However, according to EWSWA board chair and Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara, all three municipalities have agreed to take part in the regional organic waste program.

"It doesn't make sense for them not to take part because we all share the same landfill site in Essex," said McNamara, adding there's also a push to regionalize regular garbage collection across the county.

McNamara says at this point they're leaning toward organic green bin collection to be weekly with regular garbage collection moving to biweekly across the region.

Nancy Erhard lives in Windsor and says a green bin area program is something she welcomes.

"It's long overdue to have something organized," said Erhard. 

"There's no reason not to do it and many places already do," adding that organic material does not belong in a landfill because it causes "all kinds of problems," creating gases. 

Erhard says she believes Windsor-Essex has taken its time introducing a green bin program because there's been an availability of land for landfills.

"But as that runs out and people realize that this is not a good way to manage a landfill, it causes a lot of runoff. That's toxic. People realize that in other places, land is pretty scarce, so they've had to manage it other ways."

Much like Erhard, Sandra Reaume of Windsor supports the introduction of an organics waste program in the region come 2025. 

"It wouldn't bother me," said Reaume. "It helps the planet and nature and people."

"So why not?"

She says it won't involve much of a change in the kitchen for the existing recycling and garbage process in their house.

"Right now we have a bin for recycling, and we have one for garbage — like in the same one. So you could add a third compartment. And when it's filled then you take it outside … I wouldn't mind it."

41% of residents would support biweekly garbage collection: survey

Copot-Nepszy says more than 2,500 local residents took part in an EWSWA online survey about the organic waste curbside collection program — with a "good cross-section of all eight municipalities."

"We found that over 75 per cent of the respondents said they would participate in a curbside organic program. We had 12 per cent on the fence … which went with a response of maybe, and then another 10 per cent with a no." 

Some concerns residents brought up included smell from the waste and having enough space for a second bin in their kitchens.

Residents were also asked their opinions on collection strategies to prioritize weekly collection and garbage waste every other week, according to Copot-Nepszy.

"We wanted to know what their opinions would be on that because that is best practice in Ontario. And 41 per cent actually did support an alternate garbage collection week where every other week they'd receive garbage collection."

In that case, it would see green bin collection on a weekly basis, however, she says respondents also stressed the need for extra garbage collection around holidays in a biweekly scenario.

"We're looking to take all this feedback and let it help us build a successful program so we can get residents to participate and appreciate the extra service they'll be getting around their solid waste management."

Each of the eight municipalities has its own contract for garbage and EWSWA is working with the County of Essex to find out whether they want to regionalize the system to include the green bin pickups, says Copot-Nepszy.

How curbside collection will be handled, and by whom, has yet to be determined.