The new man at the regional landfill is Tom Moore, ex of the Town of Slave Lake. Managing the landfill for just the past two or three months, he’s already in no doubt why the landfill cell is filling faster than it needs to.
“People are not understanding the difference between household waste and what can be recycled,” he says. “We’ll find electronics, wood, cardboard (in with the household waste). That’s filling my landfill faster.”
It’s not a trivial point. The cost of creating a new landfill cell has jumped fairly recently from a quarter million dollars to nearly a million, thanks partly to stiffer government standards.
“So that’s why we’re trying to encourage recycling,” Moore says. “If we can gain one or two years, we can stretch how much (money) we need to set aside each year.”
Compared to what used to be diverted from the landfill, the amount these days seems impressive. There’s always a growing pile of rubber tires, a stack of burnable wood, an acreage of white goods, a paddock of car bodies and a pasture of compost.
Not to mention the improved paint and used oil collection facilities next to the field of cast off electronics. Speaking of unwanted electronics, 16 tonnes of the stuff was recently hauled off to a recycling facility in Airdrie and there’s already quite a large stockpile building.
Moore says that about a third of the total volume of waste that came in so far this year has been diverted from the landfill. That’s pretty good compared to the provincial figure, but that’s not enough.
“Our goal is 40 – 50 per cent in the next couple of years,” Moore says.
Alberta diverted just 20 per cent in 2006. Nova Scotia led all provinces at 41 per cent and the national average was 22 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.
Landfill staff can’t tell what’s in those trucks that go over the scale. They always ask, and when they hear, ‘household waste’ they direct the person to the transfer station. M.D. waste goes in one bin; town waste in another. Garbage from outside of those two jurisdictions goes to yet another bin.
“We keep track of every pound,” Moore says.
They also inspect the bins frequently and what they find is not encouraging. Lots of cardboard is in there, despite clearly marked recycling bins standing nearby. Unpainted wood, metal, electronics – you name it.
Speaking of electronics, things are looking up on another front. The province has mandated that microwave ovens and stereos will now be covered under the same system that subsidizes landfills and recycling companies for processing computers and TVs. So they won’t be left hanging around or put municipalities in the hole to get rid of. Not that there’s that much of them.
The volume of TVs and computers, on the other hand, “is gigantic,” Moore says.
“Something else that amazes me,” he says. “We’ve sent about 350 refrigeration units this year and we’ve probably got another 100 out there now.”
So, there’s lots of work to be done, both in handling the current waste traffic and educating the public, and Moore is happy to be doing it.
“So far I’m really liking it,” he says.

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