The Ontario government is planning to keep all organic waste away from landfills. It is an ambitious goal for a province that generate about 12 million tons of waste yearly, and only recycles about a quarter of that amount.
Organic waste is the most environmentally damaging form of waste to be sent to landfills since it decomposes into methane which is a harmful greenhouse gas and it is 21 times worse than carbon dioxide.
The Ontario government warns that if improvements aren’t made, the province’s landfills could run out of capacity within the next 20 years.
London still don’t have organic waste program, but there is one large organic waste treatment company located in London, Organworld Canada, they are able to turn organic waste into green energy and compost or fertilizer.
Their head office is at 2940 Dingman Drive, London, ON, which is pretty close to highway 401. Mike Leopold, the General Manager of the company says that they are willing to work with local government.
“We are very eager to work with the city to develop a plan. We think our location would be ideal for the city,” says the General Manager.
Locally, Orgaworld has very solid “green bin” program with the city of St Thomas. And Leopold says that the program has been running for 8 years and it’s been a huge success.
He adds, “We think it is absolutely a great step. Landfill capacity as most people aware of is an issue across the province, they don’t want to open up new landfills and also the landfills we currently have is getting filled.”
According to the statistics from the City of London, about 55% of total waste goes to landfills last year. In the wake of Ontario’s ambitious initiative to keep all organic waste away from landfills, Jamie Jongsma, the Financial Controller of Orgaworld Canada, thinks it is an opportunity.
“We think it is a great opportunity for our company to grow, not only in southwestern Ontario, but all across Canada. We think it is a great step diverting organic waste from landfills and I think there is a serious under capacity issue in the organic recycling industry as a whole,” says Jongsma
