Those old shingles workers are tearing off your roof and old wooden pallets left over from shipping materials could soon find a new use, thanks to the big brains at Walker Environmental.<\/p>\n
The company already takes all the kitchen scraps and yard waste that Niagara residents put to the curb for the region\u2019s waste contractor and turns it into useful compost at its facility on the Niagara Falls-Thorold border. As well, it runs other renewable energy businesses.<\/p>\n
But Walker now has approval from the province\u2019s environment ministry to turn its old east landfill on the border of those two cities into a unique resource recovery area, diverting materials from precious landfill space.<\/p>\n
Mike Watt, executive vice-president of Walker Environmental, said there is still some landfill capacity in that section of the landfill but most of the 150 acres is now closed and capped. \u201cYou\u2019ve got lots of space to do all kinds of things,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company has launched a new initiative to use the site as a collection point for materials such as waste wood from pallets or railway ties that can be ground up and used for energy production or combined with clay from construction sites and compost to create manufactured soils.<\/p>\n
Old shingles will also be collected there and ground up. Watt said Walker is exploring ways to have that turned into asphalt that can be reused for road construction.<\/p>\n
The wood can also be used for burning for energy, replacing coal in kilns and coke ovens at places such as steel mills in Hamilton, said Watt. While wood also produces greenhouse gases, unlike dirty coal or even cleaner natural gas it\u2019s a renewable resource, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an opportunity for us to create new products and fuel sources, all while lowering greenhouse gas emissions and repurposing the land on top of our east landfill,\u201d said Tim McVicar, Walker\u2019s vice-president of transfer and disposal.<\/p>\n
Watt said Walker is also exploring crops that can be planted on top of the landfill, for creating livestock feed.<\/p>\n
All the aspects of the new facility mesh with efforts to transition Ontario to a low-carbon economy at a time of troubling global warming, said Watt.<\/p>\n
Another key component of the new facility will be development of a huge swath of the old landfill into a pollinator habitat for pollinators such as honeybees that have seen a devastating population drop due to factors such as lack of habitat and pesticides.<\/p>\n