The city is in talks with an international waste management company as it looks to develop a food waste composting facility and program in the future -NEWS FILE PHOTO
newsdesk@medicinehatnews.com
City staff have engaged in discussions with Ambipar, an environment management company, as work continues on building a future food waste composting facility.
The $9.5-million project was held off the 2025-26 budget as the city looks to potentially split some of the costs with Cypress County and Redcliff, and was the largest capital ask proposed in the 2025-26 city business plan.
The project was before council in June and was deferred while talks continue on the proposed facility.
Alongside a food waste composting facility, staff would also like to introduce a city-wide program to collect and keep organic material from entering the landfill.
On Thursday, Jamie Garland, director of environmental utilities, told committee members city staff have been evaluating contamination levels and processing costs with Ambipar to create a proposal for the city for organic feed stock management.
This meant providing Ambipar a sample of the waste product.
“We approved to take five loads from our collections to be delivered to them for their processing, and this will provide them a representative sample of what our typical material looks like in Medicine Hat,” said Garland.
According to its website, Ambipar operates in more than 40 countries and has more than 500 bases around the world, with a focus on helping sectors meet goals in environment management and sustainability.
Aside from meeting with regional partners, the project will also need to undergo a potential rate increase assessment to residents and how the project would affect other city operations, like waste collection and enforcement strategies.
The city also needs to consider if the end product created from the food waste composting facility could be made available for residents.
Moving forward city staff say they will draw up a request for a decision for council to consider at a further date.
“We need to evaluate, it’s quite a complex process because of the complex nature of what’s coming in,” said Garland.
In 2024, the city launched a large pilot project to have 4,000 Hat households include all kitchen waste, like coffee grounds, soiled paper and leftovers, even meat and dairy, in their yard waste bins.
Organic food waste accounts for between 40 to 50 per cent of waste entering the landfill, and administrators believe more than 22,000 tonnes of material could be diverted annually.
