Local composter inks deal with Peterborough

By Jody Jakab 

BELLEVILLE – Belleville’s Astoria Organic Matters has struck a deal with the City of Peterborough to compost its organic waste.

On the city’s website, Peterborough city public works director Wayne Jackson says the Astoria facilities are a better alternative to the city’s original plan to build a new $3.5 million facility.

Astoria’s president and chief executive officer, Al Hamilton, who landed the 3-year contract with the city, says it was an ideal arrangement for everyone.

“We originally established our relationship with Peterborough by getting the grinding and the screening contracts on their sites. And then it just evolved from there. Once our plant was up and running it made more sense to keep their sites clean and bring it to us,” Hamilton said.

What makes Astoria’s success interesting is the composting technology it uses.

The compost process and how it works can be found on their website. The process is fairly quick, and is also more efficient than letting Mother Nature carry out the work, according to Hamilton.

“Mother Nature can do the same process in about 12-16 months, depending on how that’s cared for,” said Hamilton.

After the waste has been through Astoria’s facilities, the finished product is transported over here to be shipped to customers around the area. Photo by Jody Jakab, QNet News.

“Outside with the GORE cover and really controlling, and creating that perfect environment for the microorganisms, we do it in 8 weeks,” he said.

The cover, according to the GORE website, is an aerated system that controls the oxygen, as well monitors the temperature and oxygen. On top of that, it results in little energy consumption and a smaller footprint on the composting area.

Astoria is a fairly new facility in the area. It was incorporated in March of 2012. In 2013, engineering of the facility was started. The process was long and took lots of work on the part of the company and Belleville.

It is not to say it didn’t receive any help. The company received roughly $10 million in Euros (or $14 million in Canadian dollars), through GORE Creative Technologies which is the technology used for composting at Astoria.

“It did take 24 months to get the approvals through. Lots of engineering, lots of conversations and understanding of the technology and what we wanted to do with the Ministry of the Environment in climate control,” he said.

The site they are on now was already zoned and had the Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) necessary to build on the site, which resulted in a speedy process in building the facilities.

“We started in the middle of September of this year receiving waste in. We’ve went through our first environmental audit with the Ministry of the Environment and the local office in Belleville. Absolutely no complaints,” Hamilton said.

Organic waste before it is transported into one Astoria’s three facilities that compost the waste. Photo by Jody Jakab, QNet News.

Astoria’s facility is one of the largest in Canada, according to Hamilton. The facility can take in 70,000 metric tons of waste per year. Currently they are taking in a little more than 30,000 metric tons per year, which is about 40 per cent of their total capacity.

They have many contracts on paper ready to go once more buildings are built he said.

“Actually on paper we’re booked out at about 120% of our capacity. So it’s now really just slowly moving into building that capacity,” he said.

Astoria also works with Prince Edward County and Belleville to compost their food waste.

“Eighty per cent of our revenues are based on tipping fees, or incoming fees for the material to be dumped on our site. Fifteen per cent comes from the finished compost,” Hamilton said.

The company plans to have 6 more plants built in Canada. They are currently looking at Quebec, Newfoundland, and Thunder Bay, Ont., which is interested in having a compost facility of its own.