Hon. Diana McQueen officially opens BFI Canada's new Waste Handling and Material Recovery Facility in Rocky View County

CALGARY, Dec. 13, 2012 /CNW/ - BFI Canada held the official opening of its new Waste Handling and Material Recovery Facility in Rocky View County today.

"This new 122,000 square foot facility is the latest example of our commitment to environmental stewardship and resource recovery, and we are making large investments into new infrastructure to back up that commitment," said Joe Rajotte, Vice President Western Canada. "This new facility in Rocky View County will allow BFI Canada to handle more types of recyclable commodities in a more cost efficient manner."

The Honourable Diana McQueen, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development was in attendance, to make remarks and to officially open the facility. Joining Minister McQueen was His Worship Rolly Ashdown, Reeve, Rocky View County, and Sharon Howland, President, Recycling Council of Alberta.

"This facility supports the province's Too Good to Waste Strategy and will be an important part of the waste diversion and resource recovery infrastructure in southern Alberta," said Minister McQueen.

The modern facility is designed to be highly adaptable in order to accommodate continued changes in the material stream. It was also built with significant extra capacity in anticipation of processing additional volume in the near future.

"This facility was built to handle today's needs, but it is ready for tomorrow's demands. We are looking for more opportunities and additional materials to recycle," said Rajotte. "BFI Canada's diversion rate has increased tremendously over the last 10 years; we have increased our front load recycle collection by 500 per cent. We are proud of that accomplishment and BFI Canada will continue to invest in diversion and resource recovery to meet southern Alberta's growing needs."

Backgrounder
BFI Canada's Waste Handling and Material Recovery Facility
Rocky View County

The new Rocky View County Waste Handling and Material Recovery Facility is one of three operated in Alberta by BFI Canada with the other two in Edmonton and Lethbridge.

At the present time this new facility will process on average approximately 32,000 tonnes of materials annually, with the capacity to expand to 80,000 tonnes. The facility was designed to be adaptable to meet future changes in the waste stream and to have additional capacity to accommodate the growing needs of southern Alberta.

Materials currently being processed:

• All fibre including cardboard, newspaper, magazines, and office paper
• All film and soft plastics
• All hard plastics
• All beverage containers and returnables

The new BFI Canada facility in Rocky View County is approximately 122,000 square feet and will have 105 fulltime employees. BFI Canada has 393 employees in Alberta.

The facility is equipped with new OCC shaker screens that separate cardboard and fibre and a new Enterprise Baler, both of which will improve process productivity and increase capacity.

Commodities are sold to markets to be further processed, including markets in the United States and China.

This is the most recent investment that BFI Canada has made into waste diversion and resource recovery projects, demonstrating its commitment to the environment. BFI Canada is a Progressive Waste Solutions company, the third largest waste company in North America, headquartered in Toronto.

Progressive Waste Solutions continues to invest in waste diversion. As an example, we have partnered with the City of Surrey in British Columbia to conduct residential waste, recycling and organics collection using Compressed Natural Gas vehicles. These trucks will emit 23 per cent less carbon emissions and 90 per cent less air particulates.

SOURCE: BFI Canada

For all media inquiries:
Mike Gladstone
BFI Canada
403 990 8679
[email protected]