Lethbridge opens Organics Processing Facility

With the flip of a switch, The new home of your week-old leftovers, food scraps and spring yard waste was officially opened City of Lethbridge unveiled the Organics Processing Facility. It will receive and process all green cart materials collected from both the residential and commercial programs. Lethbridge mayor Blaine Hyggen says this new facility will have an impact on the city’s environmental footprint. 

According to Lethbridge Waste and Environment Processing Manager, Steve Rozee, who gave a tour of the new facility to city officials and the media, the raw organic materials are brought into the facility by truck, where they are processed using a variety of machinery. Once the materials are done processing, they are brought outside for the composting stage.  The materials are placed in bunkers which take one to two days to fill up and are aerated using vents embedded in the concrete.  This composting stage takes about 21 days to complete. As the camera moves over from the newly placed materials to the ones that have been composting for 18 days, you can tell the difference in the size of the pile. The compost shrinks in mass by thirty to fifty percent.  It is then moved from the bunkers to an open area for more aeration before it is ready to sell. Director of Infrastructure Services Joel Sanchez describes how the award-winning facility was financed.

The processed compost is available to commercial, industrial and residential customers for twenty-five dollars per metric tonne.