City of Calgary MRF / Compost Tour and Seminar

PAC Packaging Consortium, in partnership with the Recycling Council of Alberta and The City of Calgary hosted a one-day seminar and facility tour on June 18, 2018 at the Shepard Waste Management Facility in Calgary. 26 participants learned from our panel of experts and later toured either the MRF or the composting facility.

Presentations

Click on the links to download the presentations:

Panel of Experts

Kayley Fesko, Waste Diversion Specialist, City of Calgary
“Waste Diversion for Calgary Businesses & Organizations”

In 2014, The City of Calgary began implementation of the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) Waste Diversion Strategy including the development of a comprehensive set of diversion tools for all materials in the ICI sector while also targeting most common materials and largest generators in the waste stream to maximize diversion.

Carlson Yepes, Waste Diversion Specialist, City of Calgary
“Packaging Trends and Processing Challenges”

Light-weighting of packaging and the invent of multilayered packaging solutions are presenting new challenges for MRFs and other processors. Products like chip bags and standup pouches may use layers of different materials, like foil and plastic, which can’t be separated and thus can’t be recycled through existing processes. Unfortunately, this is potentially the biggest current problem with recycling packaging materials and there is no easy solution.

Dave Pullar, CEO, Left Field Foods
“The balance and challenge of optimizing packaging”

Dave is now leading a local Calgary based snack food company. He previously led the private label business units at Safeway and Sobeys with experience in a wide range of brands and packaging formats across thousands of products. Finding the optimum packaging solution is not an easy task when balancing consumer acceptance, protecting the product, considering sustainability, manufacturing, and achieving business results.

The City, in partnership with Chinook Resource Management Group, built the composting facility at the Shepard Waste Management Facility, which opened in July 2017. It accepts food and yard waste from the Green Cart Composting Program as well as dewatered biosolids, a nutrient-rich by-product from wastewater treatment. The Calgary Composting Facility, is the largest of its kind in Canada. The facility produces Category A compost for use in gardens, parks, athletic fields and farms.

The Material Recovery Facility (MRF) is owned and operated by Cascades Recovery Inc., which The City of Calgary contracts to sort and recover recycling items. Machines organize the materials, but employees also remove some items by hand to make sure they are sorted properly. About 70% of the sorting is completed by the machines with the remaining 30% handled manually by employees. Once items are sorted, they are sent to markets that turn them into new products.

Tour provided by: Craig More, Program Manager Organics; Laura Hamilton, Waste Diversion Specialist; Carlson Yepes, Waste Diversion Specialist; and Bill Stitt, General Manager, Cascades Recovery+ Calgary Operations

Professional Development / Continuing Education Units

This workshop has been added to Alberta Environment and Parks’ list of approved courses for continuing education for the Alberta Landfill Operator Certification Program. View the CEU policy document on the AEP certification website. Participants can claim 0.4 CEUs for their attendance.

About PAC

Join over 2,300 North American members that benefit from the vast networking opportunities through PAC’s wide range of educational activities and events. PAC, Packaging Consortium is a not-for-profit corporation serving as a vital partner and catalyst for the packaging value chain for over 65 years.
Join the PAC and learn more.

About RCA

The RCA’s mission is to promote and facilitate waste reduction, recycling, and resource conservation in the Province of Alberta.
Through a consultative approach and support of the RCA Committees and partners (i.e., government, industry, stewardship organizations and other associations) and additional stakeholders, the RCA will pursue protection of the environment through resource conservation following the 3Rs hierarchy.
Visit https://recycle.ab.ca to find out more.