The Saugeen Shores landfill has about seven years of capacity left.
That’s according to a presentation to town council Monday about the Southampton site’s limited lifespan.
The Town is in the process of considering the future of the site.
Consultants from GM Blueplan note, options could include closing the landfill site and shipping waste elsewhere, expanding the existing landfill, creating a new landfill elsewhere in town, or using what consultants call alternative waste management technologies like incineration.
Consultants say other waste diversion activities will be considered alongside the alternatives, but are not seen as a full solution to the larger problem of managing all the waste that’s produced.
GM Blueplan was retained by the Town in 2020 to look into future options. The Town has been commissioning a number of studies and assessments, including a natural environment assessment which looks at potential impact on plants and animals, which is ongoing, a hydrogeological investigation which looks at soil and groundwater in the area, which is also ongoing, and archaeological assessments.
Saugeen Shores Manager of Environmental Services and Project Manager Colin Saunders told council Monday night, he’s been working with landfills for many years, and he feels waste diversion is an important part of extending a landfill’s life span.
He told councillors, “What we’re finding with our landfill in Saugeen Shores is a lot of construction waste, a lot of unsorted waste. That’s harder to compact, it’s not separated out, so that it’s not something where we’re diverting.”
“I’ve come to the conclusion that diversion is very crucial,” says Saunders adding, “When you look at statistics, 25, possibly up to 30 per cent of the landfill waste is source separated organics. So that’s what goes into these food cyclers, what goes into green bins.”
Giving the example of Ottawa, Saunders says about 57 per cent of people there are using green bins, which he says may not be everyone, but adds, “That’s still a substantial amount. If we could divert 15 per cent even from the landfill, that’s a lot of lifetime in our landfill.”
Saunders estimates a landfill expansion could add 40 to 50 years onto the current site if the community gets better at diverting its waste. A Port Elgin landfill was closed in 2007.
“We have to start looking into these programs more,” notes Saunders, adding he was excited by the results of pilot program the Town took part in involving an in-home counter top FoodCycler composter that was subsidized for a number of households who wanted it. The results showed a notable amount of waste was kept out of the landfill and turned into fresh soil.
Public engagement on the future of the site is expected to begin in early 2024, after that, GM Blueplan says there would be an environmental assessment process which would also include discussion about alternatives to landfill expansion.