By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Sylvan Lake waste-to-fluff machine up to two years away

Sep 4, 2018 | 12:30 PM

An innovative waste-reduction facility proposed for Sylvan Lake won’t move ahead for at least the next 18 months.

Fogdog Energy says they have the technology to convert 98 per cent of the town’s municipal waste into ‘fluff.’ The Alberta company has been negotiating with the Town for several months and as of July had made a few concessions including providing all up-front costs.

The Town would pay that back to Fogdog over 10 years.

As it turns out, however, such a facility can’t be built without approval from Alberta Environment and Parks, a process which could set a new facility back up to two years.

“It’s outside of our control. They’re a private business group,” says Joanne Gaudet, Town communications officer. “We feel like we’ve at least done our due diligence to research the technology and the company and work with them in terms of a business pan and feasibility. This delay is not necessarily a bad thing.”

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Gaudet says there’s relief that now the Town can proceed with its planned rollout of blue carts for recycling starting the week of October 1.

A public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 24 to finalize the bylaw for the new collection, which is currently planned as bi-weekly. Garbage pickup will remain a weekly occurrence.

“We’re excited to get some action here and more so excited that we can provide our residents with a quality service that is pretty standard in Alberta these days,” she adds. “We’re happy.”

Last June, two Town staff travelled to Italy to observe the technology on a smaller scale.