Airdrie’s Team Leader, Waste & Recycling Services, Susan Grimm spoke to the Rotary Club of Airdrie today about the City’s program and successes in reducing waste and increasing recycling. July is Rotary’s sustainable month internationally, and Airdrie can be proud of our contribution: We have achieved a 45% reduction of waste to landfill over the past 5 years.
As of today, 41% of all material collected at the curbside is landfilled, 34% is re-processed as organics and the remaining 25% is recycled. The aim is to reduce the landfill material in 2023 to only 20% of all collected.
Future opportunities are:
- Continue to identify new opportunities that may exist for diverting additional material from landfill
- Consider opportunities to expand the use of the current depot facility to the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional sectors
- Explore opportunities to combine Recycling Depot and Transfer Site operations on one site within Airdrie City limits and establish the land as an Eco Park for future waste diversion opportunities
- Partner with a third party organics processor for a facility to be sited at the Eco Park
- Consider landfill alternatives – explore technology that takes waste and converts it into alternative sources (fuel, energy) with a possibility to site such a facility at the Eco Park
