A proposed organics processing facility will not be located in Clearview Township.
At a press conference in Midhurst Tuesday morning, County of Simcoe officials announced that the preferred site for a new recycling plant is in Springwater Township, a site that can accommodate a facility that can manage the recycling of everything that is sorted into the recycling bins, and possibly more.
Out of 502 sites initially identified as possible locations for the facility, Clearview Township was one of the seven finalists. The Fairgrounds Road North property (landfill site 42) was considered only for the organics plant, so with the “one site, one solution” approach, Clearview is out of the running.
The Clearview site was evaluated for the organics processing facility and ranked second behind the preferred site, according to the county. Because the site is comprised of prime agricultural land and has never been used as a landfill, there was no advantage for so-called brownfield redevelopment, or clean-up.
County staff is endorsing a property at 2976 Horseshoe Valley Road West, a portion of county-owned forest. The site ranked first across the board using a variety of criteria. The property was chosen based on being in low proximity to homes and businesses, ample treed buffering and access to the transportation network.
The recommendation will be considered by county councillors at a committee of the whole meeting on March 8 and will go to council on March 22. Staff recommends building a facility that will be able to handle waste from future growth.
“By 2030 we’ll have some 400,000 residents in the County of Simcoe so that means more garbage and we’ll need to deal with that in a meaningful fashion,” said Warden Gerry Marshall, who supports the staff recommendation.
Simcoe collects all household waste in the county, but currently ships all recycling and organics to other areas for processing.
“We handle quite a lot of organics right now in Simcoe County, about 10,000 tons a year but we are only capturing a third of it so we know there’s up to 30,000 tons that is already available in our waste stream and with the growth that’s coming, this is an area that we really need to address,” said director of solid waste management Rob McCullough.
“We believe we can do it cheaper and just as efficiently ourselves,” said McCullough.
The exact technology used to treat the organics is not yet known and would have to be determined through a public procurement process. McCullough said the options are so wide ranging that it is hard to estimate costs. The organics facility could cost between $10- and $35-million or more and the materials management facility is expected to cost $4.7 million. With the opening of the new combined facility, about a dozen or so jobs will be created.
“We have been in very good stead in the province and we’ve had very strong support from county councillors for waste diversion. We’ve been one of the top 10 diverting municipalities in all of Ontario for six to seven years running. As we look forward we know there’s a number of different programs we have to look at,” said McCullough.
The initiative stems from a solid waste management strategy that committed to looking for alternative waste management strategies, including diversion, which is being strongly encouraged by the province. As a result of processing recyclables in the county, there will be a lower impact on the environment by shortening the haul route and there is the possibility for revenue by selling compost and fertilizer, byproducts of the organics facility.
The next public information sessions will be held at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on April 19, at the Simcoe County Museum in Midhurst.