Oxford Exploring New Technology to Achieve Zero Waste

Thursday, 15 March 2018 14:07

The County of Oxford is looking for some public feedback before they move forward with new technology to help them achieve their Zero Waste Goals.

Oxford County Council is considering some new technology to help reach their zero waste goal.

Enhanced Material Recovery & Biological Treatment would recover as much as 90% of the materials that end up in our landfill. Director of Public Works for the County David Simpson says this is their preferred method of reducing waste.

"So this would essentially sort out recyclable and recoverable materials like plastic, paper, metal, construction and demolition materials and have those sorted appropriately so they can be sold and distributed to various end markets and then there is a second back end process to that. It is known as a biological treatment process where any of the organic material that is the incoming waste stream is also sorted out and processed separately in manner that could produce other forms of energy through bio-gas or good bio solids and compost that could be used for fertilizing soil. So the main application of those two front and back end processes would help the County move forward in terms of it's zero waste goal of having as little as 10 percent of waste being land filled."

Simpson says the central theme of this technology is resource recovery.

"Essentially we are looking at extracting any useful material that are contained in the mixed waste stream that's coming into our landfill, so that could be any materials or resources that might otherwise be waste that we can reprocess for reuse, recycling, reintegration into other markets or regenerating other materials into a different product."

Residents are also encouraged to visit an upcoming drop-in meeting at Oxford County Library branches where visual displays and staff will be on hand to explain the strategy, answer questions and receive public input.

Drop-in dates:

Ingersoll Public Library – 130 Oxford Street
Wednesday, March 21 - 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Tillsonburg Public Library – 2 Library Lane
Thursday, April 5 - 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Embro Public Library – 135 Huron Steet
Wednesday, April 11 - 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Princeton Public Library – 25 Main Street
Tuesday, April 17 - 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.