Some much-needed upgrades are taking place at the City of Lethbridge’s Waste and Recycling Centre, which will speed up the process for customers accessing waste, recycling and organics services.
City Waste Engineer Mark Molesky says the old equipment has reached the end of its service life. “We’re replacing it with a quad-scale facility.”
During the summer, Molesky adds, there will be some construction on-site. “Additionally, we’re going to have temporary in-bound and out-bound scales, which will temporarily change the traffic patterns on-site.”
The changes will help processing times, while decreasing processing costs.
According to the City, the existing scale house and scale decks will be decommissioned starting June 16.
Other changes and upgrades include new traffic management devices, twice as many in-bound and out-bound scale decks and automated fast-track lanes for commercial and frequent customers.
The new upgrades will allow the facility to double its scaling capacity, Molesky notes.
Molesky says the total project cost is under $4 million and is funded through the City’s Capital Improvement Program, which was approved by Council.
Lethbridge’s Waste and Recycling Centre has an active landfill, materials recovery facility and an organics processing facility.
“The truck scales weigh all vehicles coming in and out and allows us to bill an invoice to customers appropriately,” adds Molesky. “It’s a key aspect to the site because everybody coming in and out of the site will be utilizing them.”
The expected life cycle of the scales are around 25 years. “We expect the building to be well above that,” says Molesky. The aim is to complete the project by mid-November.
General Manager of Waste and Environment Mandi Parker says the Centre processes approximately 110,000 tonnes of material a year that crosses the scales into the landfill, the organics facility and the material recovery facility for recycling, as well as hydrovac waste and more.
“We’re experiencing more tonnage. On our free Saturday program, we have over 1,200 vehicles crossing the scales. Our scales were at the end of their useful life, as well as the scale house,” adds Parker.
When bringing waste to the landfill, Parker explains, it’s actually more expensive to not divert your waste. “If you do separate it and divert it, fees are cheaper. It’s more convenient for you and for your pocketbook to separate them into the divertible materials.”
“We have different numbers for how it’s diverted. But we would like to see the numbers decrease for the landfill and an increase for the diversion of the materials. It’s just better for everybody,” Parker notes.
