The City of Lethbridge unveiled its Organics Processing Facility on Wednesday.
This award-winning facility will receive and process all the green cart materials that will be collected from both residential and commercial programs, which start up on May 16th.
“It’s an exciting day for the City and our community,” says Mayor, Blaine Hyggen.
“The opening of the Organics Processing Facility is a step forward in positioning our city to be more sustainable. It will help us reach our target of diverting 65 per cent of residential waste from the landfill by 2030. Most importantly, it creates environmental benefits for Lethbridge now and into the future.”
The entire curbside organics project, including the facility construction, was funded with support from both the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta and cost just over $10.6 million.
“We’re incredibly grateful to our government partners for their support in the completion of this project,” says Hyggen.
“They’ve helped our community set out on a path of excellent environmental stewardship for generations to come.”
When the organic material comes to the facility, its then shredded, mixed and sits in various open-air bunkers. It then takes around 44 days to turn household organics into compost which residents will then be able to collect and use.
Mandi Parker, General Manager of Waste & Environment says they expect to be able to generate over 13,000 tonnes of compost a year.
The compost is also going to be used in city parks and gardens and sold to agricultural partners for commercial use.
The first city-wide collection for the green carts starts on Tuesday, May 16th and will be collected on different days then the black and blue carts.
Residents who reside in apartments or condos with a communal collection can expect to see their green carts this fall.