City of Regina goes back to drawing board on composting facility

The City of Regina is ending its contract with a company to build a composting facility and will head back to the drawing board as it looks for another permanent solution to process organic waste. 

Regina has long planned to have a composting facility that would process the waste from the city's green bin program, which launched in fall 2023. 

EverGen Infrastructure Corp. had been contracted to operate a temporary site, located at the City of Regina landfill, processing that waste while it worked to build a more permanent facility. 

That contract will now be mutually terminated at the end of the month, with the City of Regina taking over operations at the temporary site. 

"For residents, this requires no change to their current behaviour. Residents should continue to use their green cart and their food and yard waste material will continue to be delivered to the temporary site for processing," said Carolyn Kalim, the city's director of water, waste and environment. 

EverGen had planned to construct a facility in the Rural Municipality of Edenwold, located just outside of Pilot Butte, a town about 15 kilometres east of Regina. 

A decision by Edenwold's council at the end of December 2023 ended that plan and put the future facility in limbo. 

The City of Regina and EverGen had been attempting to renegotiate the contract, but ultimately came to the conclusion that starting another public procurement process was the best solution. 

WATCH | Laptops in compost bins? Go inside Regina's temporary compost site: 

Laptops in compost bins? Go inside Regina's temporary compost site

1 year ago

Duration 3:04

EverGen, the private company contracted to process Regina's compost bins, gave a behind-the-scenes look at their temporary composting location at the city landfill. The director of organics showed off technology that he says gets rid of nearly all of the smell. He also lectured against some composting infractions, saying residents have thrown electronics, glass bottles, clothes and pills in their green bins.

The tender has yet to be published on the province's tender website, but Kalim said they are expanding some of the requirements, such as allowing a facility to be located farther away from the City of Regina 

"The same general concept would be that we would be looking for a processor that would select a site, build a site, operate a site for us and create some sort of end product of value that can be sold," said Kalim. 

Kalim would not comment on a potential timeline to get a permanent facility up and running, saying it would be inappropriate with a procurement process underway. 

Kalim said the City of Regina would prefer to have a facility in operation sooner, rather than later. The decision to terminate the contract is not related to the results of the recent municipal election, Kalim said. 

EverGen will be allowed to take part in the public procurement process, Kalim confirmed. 

CBC has requested comment from EverGen, but a response was not immediately received on Wednesday.