Ontario Construction News staff writer
With a planned Environmental Resource and Recovery Centre (ERRC) project on hold pending a LPAT hearing, the County of Simcoe will spend over $5.5 million on a temporary solution to manage roughly 82,200 tonnes of waste generated annually.
County council voted recently to construct a temporary waste transfer facility at the Oro Waste Management Facility on Old Barrie Road West.
The two-building facility will include:
- Main transfer (garbage one week recycling the next): 120′ X 175′ approximate
- Organics transfer: building 34′ X 50′ approximate with additional outside transfer pad with material being transferred to inside organics storage building at end of every operating day. This is not a processing facility.
Once complete, it will receive materials from curbside collection vehicles, where staff will consolidate and load materials into larger haulage vehicles and transport items for processing/disposal.
After the Environmental Resource Recovery Centre – ERRC is built, estimated at 3-5 years, the transfer facility will be repurposed and likely serve as a vehicle maintenance facility for the Solid Waste Management fleet and for a repair, servicing and distribution hub of the automated carts required for our new curbside waste collection contract starting November 2021.
The ERRC will provide a facility to process our organics locally and manage the transfer of garbage and recycling material. According to the County of Simcoe, the facility “will allow us to securely manage our own waste, control transfer and processing costs, and provide greater flexibility to adjust our programs to divert more organics from our garbage stream.”
A stopgap move is needed because under the county’s new collection contract, starting November 2021, the County requires materials transfer services. The collections service and the transfer service had two separate RFPs to enable increased bidding opportunities from the private sector
Existing transfer facilities are severely limited in available capacity within Simcoe County and the recent RFP for these services provided only one response, which was significantly above the budgeted scope for the work
The site was chosen because the Oro-landfill is centrally located and has pre-existing approvals for managing and transferring wastes. Additional amendments will be required for the transfer operation and the revised tonnage of material that will be going through this facility.
By bringing the transfer service in house, the county estimates a 27 per cent saving over the only proposal received through the single RFP response for this contracted service
The county will also be making minor modifications to other landfill sites with existing budget to accommodate transfer support as needed.
