
Red Deer doesn’t have enough waste for current Waste-to-Energy facility technology, City says
Starting a Waste-to-Energy (WTE) project in Red Deer may not be worth the investment right now as the city doesn’t produce enough waste, officials say.
At their meeting on Monday, city council heard an assessment from administration of recent developments relating to a new WTE project being considered in central Alberta. Council requested the report during their 2023/24 budget deliberations in November 2022, accepting it as information this week.
The report highlighted research that has been done to assess the feasibility of a WTE Project in Red Deer including historical context, strategic alignment, and risk assessment and analysis. They say thermal treatment of municipal solid waste has been considered since the 1970s.
Administration found that many WTE technologies are considered emerging, meaning they have few or no facilities operating at a commercial scale, and the technologies that are proven, generally require significant volumes and specific types of waste to be viable.