Organics Processing Program

Getting yard waste ready for collection

Aerial shot of the Anaerobic Digestion Facility

Combined Heat and Power units at the Anaerobic Digestion Facility

Fermenters inside the Anaerobic Digestion Facility

Cure site is the operating area for composting yard waste and organic waste

Food Scraps Carts and Yard Waste

The City of Edmonton aims to divert 90% of residential waste from landfill. In order to help meet that goal, changes have been made to our current organics processing programs.

Having residents keep their food scraps and yard waste separate from their general garbage is a proven best practice that enables us to reduce the overall amount of waste sent to landfill. It is also more efficient to process waste that has already been sorted at home, which reduces processing costs and helps maintain a stable utility rate.

Food scraps and yard waste collected from residents are sent to the Edmonton Waste Management Centre (EWMC). This material is then either processed on-site at the EWMC or by one of our contracted regional partners. Combined, we have capacity to process and divert all the organic material that residents place in the food scraps cart, all the yard waste collected through the yard waste collection program, and some of the organic material commingled in the multi-unit garbage stream, which is not source-separated at this time.

Anaerobic Digestion Facility

This facility has replaced the Edmonton Composting Facility as the City’s largest primary processing plant for organics.

The Anaerobic Digestion Facility (ADF) enables the City to:

Process up to 40,000 tonnes of organic waste per year

Provide renewable energy in the form of electricity and heat

Reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with disposing of organics in a landfill

Organic material from the food scraps carts and organic waste that is manually separated from garbage (pre-processed multi-unit mixed waste) is processed in this facility. It works a bit like a stomach: material is put in a closed cell without oxygen, and is ‘digested’ by bacteria to make biogas (a mixed gas composed primarily of methane). The biogas is then captured and burned in combined heat and power (CHP) generators for energy generation in the form of electricity and heat. The residue from digestion is called digestate and is transferred to the Compost Cure Site where it is cured into compost.

Regional Organics Processors

To support the 90% diversion goal outlined by the 25-year Waste Strategy, the City of Edmonton’s Waste Services has also partnered with private organics processors in the Edmonton region.

The majority of the organic material collected from the food scraps carts will be transferred to a third-party off-site processing facility. These private processors will own and independently market the products generated from the organic material that they receive from the City.

Compost Cure Site

The Compost Cure Site at the EWMC is an outdoor site where semi-processed organic material undergoes the final curing process before it becomes finished compost. Microorganisms that thrive at lower temperatures are active at the cure site, and complete the composting process.

Yard waste is processed at the Compost Cure Site after being pre-processed by grinding larger materials into smaller pieces that will decompose more quickly. This is the simplest and most cost-effective way to process this material. In addition to composting yard waste, the Compost Cure Site will also receive digestate from the Anaerobic Digestion Facility (ADF) and will cure that material until it meets the standards associated with compost.

Telephone	In Edmonton: 311 Outside Edmonton: 780-442-5311
Email	wastesupport@edmonton.ca

Telephone

In Edmonton: 311
Outside Edmonton: 780-442-5311

wastesupport@edmonton.ca

Food Scraps Carts and Yard Waste

Anaerobic Digestion Facility

Regional Organics Processors

Compost Cure Site

Related Links

Edmonton Waste Management Centre

Compost Sales

Composting

For More Information