Thank you to Stephanie Aleksiuk and The City of Calgary for facilitating our first-ever Seniors and Sustainability Joint Event.
Part One consisted of a “game-style” education session entitled “Talking Trash,” where we put our waste knowledge to the test and learned how to reduce waste and conserve resources. This helped us understand how to manage our waste effectively, including through recycling and composting. The City’s waste diversion programs are critical for reducing waste and for protecting the environment. In fact, in only 60 days, the composting facility converts green cart food scraps and yard waste into nutrient-dense compost. This process diverts more than 85 million kilograms of organic waste from the landfill each year and generates compost for use in gardens, farms, and City parks. The composting facility also collects biogas from the anaerobic digestion of the organics and processes it into renewable natural gas, which is sold as a fuel.
Part Two consisted of a bus tour of the Spyhill Landfill site and a bonus tour of the city-owned gravel mine. Both operations are incredibly impressive!
The Spyhill Landfill has undergone significant advancements, including compacted clay and synthetic liners, leachate sumps, and landfill gas (LFG) extraction wells. These features contain the waste and leachate, thereby substantially reducing the landfill’s environmental impact. The leachate is collected through drainage pipes at the bottom of each landfill cell and directed to sumps, which are periodically serviced by leachate tanker trucks that pump out the collected leachate and transport it to a wastewater treatment plant. LFG is collected from the landfill cells through a series of extraction wells and flows to a centralized collection header, where it is destroyed in an enclosed flare. The destruction of this methane gas significantly reduces the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions released from the landfill.
As well, the Eco Centre at Spyhill offers large bins to divert specific waste streams, thereby reducing the volume of items disposed of in the landfill. This allows residents to recycle, reuse, and dispose of old and unwanted household items that are too large or inappropriate for the residential carts. Disposing of items such as tires, household hazardous waste, electronics, blue cart recyclables, packaging foam (white only), clothing, shoes, and textiles is free. However, there are fees to dispose of items such as scrap metal, furniture, yard waste, appliances, construction waste, bikes etc.
Calgary’s priority, from both environmental and financial perspectives, is to extend the life of this landfill by diverting as much waste as possible and maximizing the use of the space we currently have.
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