Southampton landfill expansion inevitable, despite waste diversion programs

Dealing with an increase in construction waste at the Southampton landfill is an on-going issue for Town of Saugeen Shores waste management staff who are championing diversion efforts as the Concession 14 site in Southampton has just seven years of remaining capacity.

A recent waste management update to councillors said that the Southampton site would be full in 2030 without a planned expansion that requires a “complicated and expensive” environmental process according to the mayor.

The 2022 Southampton Landfill monitoring report and waste diversion summary, prepared annually by consultant GM BluePlan, found the Town had a 42 per cent waste diversion rate last year, up from 39 per cent the previous year.

Deputy Mayor Diane Huber said that the seven-year capacity is “an incredible number”.  She pointed out that the waste management amount on tax bills is to save for the cost of landfill expansion.
“Some people may not make the connection between the amount on their tax bill and expansion and seven years is a pretty powerful number,” Huber said.

Councillor Cheryl Grace said she was pleased that the diversion rate is going up, but noted that at 42 per cent, the Town’s rate is still below the provincial average, which in 2019 was 49.7 per cent.
“I realize that the one of the big challenges has been construction waste and that staff has done a lot of work to come up with solutions to mitigate the affects of construction waste,” Grace said.
“It’s not as easy as people thing given that there are certain types of paints used that eliminates items from being recycled and it’s a complex problem

Grace also praised staff for implementing a new food composting program, one-time film plastics recycling and the large styrofoam processing program.
“These are examples of how staff have really been creative and supportive of these innovative ways of diversion that a lot of municipalities are not doing,” she said.

Larry Gill, the Town’s operations manager said dealing with construction waste has been challenging. “But staff are working at ways to resolve and better manage the problem,” he said

The Town’s website says people must sort and separate construction waste before disposal. The landfill fee for sorted waste is $121.73 per tonne. The fee for unsorted waste is $389.54 per tonne.

The waste management report showed that in 2019, the amount of waste across the scale and the amounts diverted and landfilled more than doubled, an increase Gill said may have been due to the increased construction and growth, waste placement, compaction practices, and inaccuracies associated with survey methodology. He said other improvements and efficiencies have been incorporated with compaction and operational procedures.

Mayor Luke Charbonneau suggested the Town has a PR problem when it comes to waste management and recounted what he found after attending a recent climate symposium hosted by the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) Southport.
“… Folks didn’t know about these programs and they were people who are plugged in and concerned about these things like film plastics,” Charbonneau said.
“To us it may seem mundane and obvious because we’ve been doing it for such a long time … but we have to be promoting these programs over and over again repeatedly to remind people that these programs exist.”

To date, landfill expansion work has included a hydrogeological study, species at risk study, and the Stage one archaeological study. The full scope of the Environmental Assessment (EA) is to be completed late this summer 2023. It would guide the Town as it decides the size, scope and budget of the landfill expansion project.
Town staff said the plan is to complete the EA by the end of 2024.

The Waste Management Fixed Fee mentioned by Deputy Mayor Huber was set up in 2015 to save for the inevitable landfill expansion.
The fee, charged on every property tax bill, is $60.56 this year and in a June 8 email, Town staff said the current rate generates just over $500,000 annually towards the Landfill Reserve, which in 2021 had a $3.2 million balance.
“The reserve is currently funding large projects related to the re-design and expansion of the landfill,” communications specialist Brent Lanthier said in the email.