2020 Recycling & Waste Management Awards

Recycling & Waste Management Awards 2020 BUILD 13 Oct20214 he City of Surrey is one of 21 municipalities in the Metro Vancouver region in British Columbia, Canada, it is located on the Lower Mainland on the south side of the Fraser River and shares a border with the US. We speak to Harry Janda, the City’s Solid Waste Manager, to understand exactly how a two-phase waste and recycling initiative led to award-winning success. “To start, we are a forward-thinking, globally recognized leader in building vibrant, sustainable communities through technology and innovation. Our city is one of the fastest growing, culturally diverse cities in Canada,” states Harry Janda, Solid Waste Manager for the City of Surrey, as he tells us more about the city in the wake of it receiving the award for Outstanding Dedication to Recycling & Waste Management. It was in 2009 that the progressive vision towards the management of Surrey’s organic waste was born. The overall objective was to fuel Surrey’s waste collection trucks with renewable natural gas generated from curb side organic waste and the City developed two innovative phases in order to achieve this. Phase 1 was in response to the first goal of introducing residential organic waste diversion at curb side. The City initiated its new solid waste management program, named Rethink Waste, on October 1st 2012. The program was a great success from an environmental, financial and customer participation perspective. There are four key factors that made the Rethink Waste Program (residential organics diversion) so innovative. These being: 1. The City mandated the source separation of residential kitchen waste from the garbage cart into the organics cart. Surrey’s residents were provided with a small “kitchen catcher” receptacle to make the transition more accommodating. 2. While residential organic waste continued to be collected on a weekly basis, garbage collection was reduced to alternating, biweekly collection. Structuring the collection schedule in this way provided incentive to Surrey’s residents to properly divert their organic waste into the organics cart, which further increased overall organic waste diversion rates. 3. Through its waste collection contractor, the City purchased a fleet of 100% Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) waste collection vehicles. As compared to diesel trucks, CNG trucks are a cleaner and quieter alternative. 4. Developing an organic waste processing biofuel facility to produce a renewable gas that will fuel the waste collection trucks that collect the organic waste at curb side. Harry tells us more about this initial phase and its success. “The Rethink Waste program achieved a drop in the City’s residential garbage tonnage by over 40% in its first three months of operation, along with an increase to waste diversion Award for Outstanding Dedication to Recycling & Waste Management – Surrey The City of Surrey is the largest city by land area and second most populated in Metro Vancouver. Following their recent success in BUILD’s Recycling and Waste Management Awards 2020 we took a closer look at the City of Surrey to discover more about how they earned themselves the Award for Outstanding Dedication to Recycling & Waste Management – Surrey. T from 50% to 70% meeting the regional waste diversion goal well ahead of its 2015 target. “The economic benefits realized through the Rethink Waste program include a combined savings of approximately $4.5 million annually in collection and waste disposal costs. While these savings help to offset the City’s $15 million capital investment in waste carts, “In early 2014, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities chose the City of Surrey to receive its annual Sustainable Communities Award based on Surrey’s Rethink Waste program, citing Surrey as a leader in innovative municipal waste management services.” Phase 2 aimed to achieve the City’s second goal, which was the establishment of an Organic Waste Biofuel Processing Facility that will process the City organic waste collected at curb side, as well as commercial organic waste, and generate a renewable natural gas (RNG) and a compost material. In 2014, following a market competition, the City selected Convertus (f.k.a. Orgaworld Canada) as its preferred proponent to finalize an agreement to design, build, finance, maintain and operate the Surrey Biofuel Processing Facility project. “The cost of the biofuel facility was estimated at $67.6 million,” explains Harry. “The City’s approach to developing this facility is through a public-private partnership (P3), with the Government of Canada contributing up to 25 percent of the capital costs ($16.9 million) through its P3 Canada Fund.” Construction commenced in the spring of 2015, with the facility starting operations in 2017. “The biofuel facility utilizes a world-class technology to convert residential and commercial kitchen and yard waste into renewable natural gas (RNG) and compost. Over 120,000 gigajoules of RNG is produced and used to power the City’s waste collection trucks and its growing fleet of service vehicles. The high quality compost product will be used in landscaping, growing food, and other agricultural applications within the community. Taking this final step is truly innovative and sets Surrey apart as a global leader in the solid waste management industry.” Contact: Harry Janda Web Address: www.surrey.ca