P.A.'s landfill is near capacity and a new cell will cost $3.5 million. An organic composting program would cost $1.6 million to set up.(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

WASTE

Weighing the cost of waste: P.A.’s rapidly bloating landfill

May 28, 2019 | 8:37 AM

Prince Albert city council is interested in an organic composting program but is lukewarm about the hefty price tag.

A report from city staff shows it would cost around $1.6 million to set up by 2020. That would include key capital elements such as a compost turner, collection truck and containers. It would need a further $570,000 of taxpayer money each year to run the program along the same lines as the current garbage and recycle programs.

The report also states that while the city’s grocery stores have arrangements with the Food Bank to transport excess food, most of their waste goes to the landfill which is quickly reaching capacity.

Another cell at the landfill will be needed within the next three years, and that will cost $3.5 million dollars. Thirty-five per cent of all items currently going into it are organic and at that rate the new cell would fill up in as little as nine years.

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Council will need to ponder the potential for full-scale composting in the years to come, but the mayor is skeptical about the role of organics in the decline of capacity. Greg Dionne figures the problem is large items such as demolished cabins that are being brought in from other jurisdictions.

“They’re not paying the capital fees to run that landfill,” he told paNOW following Monday’s executive committee meeting of council.

He said even when out-of-city users were charged two or three times the normal rate this was not covering the long term costs. “We’re not getting our money back …it should be ten times [the regular fee].”

Dionne said the first thing council needed to decide was what they were willing to accept at the landfill in future and at what charge because residents had no appetite for yet more utility fees that an organics program would entail.

However, Ward 2 Coun.Terra Lennox-Zepp wants more details from staff regarding the potential savings for taxpayers that organic composting could bring, versus the cost of adding landfill space every ten years or so.

“Are the ongoing cost savings of extending the life cycle of the landfill cell worth it?”

She figured the community was ready for the broader discussion about keeping organics out of the dump.

“These are steps towards looking into a very important issue and I’m interested to hear more from citizens if they want to see us proceed on this,” she said.

Staff will report back to council on ways to extend the lifespan of the existing landfill cells.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow