By this time next year, composted organic matter will be available at BFI Canada’s Prairie Green landfill site in the RM of Rosser.

"I’ve got a few people interested in buying it for landscaping," said BFI’s district manager Cliff Lechow.

Last month, Rosser council approved the company’s proposal to open a composting facility at the site, located near Highway 7.

"In Rosser, we’re really supportive of green initiatives and have confidence that BFI will operate a first-rate composing facility that will be a benefit to our municipality as well as the broader community," said Rosser reeve Frances Smee.

The composting operation is the company’s first in Canada, although it does have some in the U.S. Organic material suitable for composting will be collected from some of the commercial waste haulers using the Prairie Green site. Lechow said this waste will come from Winnipeg restaurants, commercial food processors and other businesses that generate waste suitable for composting.

The waste will be placed in windrows on an eight-acre site that is located within the Prairie Green site.

Winnipeg’s Samborski Garden Supplies was ordered to close its composting operation by Sept. 1 after the City of Winnipeg received hundreds of odour complaints from nearby residents and zoning restrictions prohibited the operation.

Lechow said properly managing the organic material will greatly reduce odour and speed up the composting process.

Carbon, in the form of wood and straw, will be added to the organic material, and the windrows will be turned three times a week during the first month to encourage decomposition.

Lechow said the composting process should take about two months in the summer and longer in the spring and fall.

He said Manitoba Conservation must approve the construction design before any composting can begin.

"We’re looking for a mid-summer start next year," he said.

With the closing of Samborski’s composting operation, the timing of BFI Canada’s proposal appears fortunate.

However, Lechow stressed the company has been considering an expansion into composting at the Prairie Green site for four years.

"We’re pleased to be the first site in Canada to have this type of progressive facility," Smee said.

 

andrea.geary@canstarnews.com