City to resume composting green bin waste when troubled facility reopens next week

The city will reopen a smelly east-end composting facility next week, which means Hamilton green bin waste will again stop going to a landfill.

The Central Composting Facility on Burlington Street East near Kenilworth Avenue North will start taking waste again in the next few days, says Dan McKinnon, general manager of public works. And it will be going "full scale by the end of March." 

The plant has been closed since last summer because of foul odours that permeated the neighbourhood.

"The consultants think they've found the answer," said Sam Merulla, councillor for Ward 4 (east end). If the stench returns, "we'll know."

The putrid smell of it was so bad, said Mayor Fred Eisenberger then, that it wafted as far as Tim Hortons Field stadium and grossed out attendees at an Arkells concert.

Since June, the city has been waiting for the province to approve measures that would make the plant, which is operated by Aim Environmental Group, less smelly. Those include carbon filters and stack extensions.

In the meantime, more than 5,000 tonnes of green bin material have gone to a Glanbrook landfill.

The city says it'll give a public update Thursday of what measures it's taken to fix the smell problem. McKinnon only gave a brief update during a city council budget session Tuesday.

The problem dates back to 2016. That's when the province passed new regulations saying compost needed to be 40 per cent moisture when cured.

Right away, residents downwind of the facility noticed a putrid smell, Merulla said. Residents stayed indoors and shut their windows to avoid it.

The city initially predicted it would resume operation in November. Merulla said there were slight delays putting the remedial measures in place. 

At one point, city council voted to ban yard waste from green bins as of April 1, although it's not clear if that ban will be necessary now.

Merulla still wants the facility moved right out of the industrial east end. It should be in a more remote area of Hamilton, he said.

"It belongs in an area that's not conducive to a residential neighbourhood," he said. "It's something I still believe should be incorporated in the future."