Peel Regional Council has an-nounced a 20-year Long-Term Waste Management Strategy (LTWMS). LTWMS is a macro level approach to the major waste issues and capital decisions to be taken by Peel Region in Ontario, over the next 20 years.

Working on recycling, composting and incinerating methods to divert 93 percent of waste from local landfill sites.

The strategy establishes future waste diversion and reduction targets and outlines a plan to achieve the targets, greatly reducing the amount of waste requiring disposal. Components of the LTWMS include: a user pay system to be phased-in beginning in 2001; community recycling centres; expansion of organics collection throughout Peel; a second recycling container to be supplied to all households and free backyard composters for residents.

"By the year 2016, Peel will be diverting 70 percent of its waste, reducing its dependency on export," says Mitch Zamojc, Commissioner of Public Works. "More importantly we will be responsibly managing 93 percent of the total waste produced in Peel," he says.

Peel became the first Canadian municipality to employ the Herhof composting system that was developed in Germany, where it is in widespread use. It is designed to turn waste into safe, quality garden compost. That was two years ago, when Peel began a $2.5 million pilot project, involving 8,000 Caledon households. It was so successful that the council approved a $3.5 million expansion of the program aimed at developing an industrial fuel called Stabilate.

Mitch Zamojc would like the program expanded throughout the region because "generating a useful byproduct from garbage is so much better than burying it," he stresses. Landfill costs $70 a tonne, composting $46.

Caledon households were given a special, wheeled container for dumping kitchen waste, including meat and dairy products, as well as yard waste. Containers can handle cardboard, thin branches and filled vacuum bags. They do not handle animal waste, diapers or feminine hygiene products. The bins have air vents to accelerate decomposition without creating odours. Liquids drain through gratings and evaporate.

Every two weeks, residents wheel the bins to curbside for pickup. The garbage is then transported to the composting building, shredded and placed in a Herhof biocell, about the size of a two-car garage. There are four biocells, each with a capacity of about 40 tonnes.

As bacteria thrive inside the biocells, energy is needed. The process creates its own heat, breaking down the waste over 7 to 10 days, depending on the time of year.

It is then taken to an outdoor curing pile and the finished compost is ready for use in about 45 days. Most of it is spread on municipal parks.

The process to develop Stabilate, which is not yet under way, will involve four additional biocells and will cost $3.5 million. Bags of mixed garbage will be collected for this experiment. Metal and other unusable materials will be taken from the garbage, which will be turned into fuel similar to brown coal.

This material can be used to generate electricity or to fire cement kilns. Ontario Hydro will be monitoring the project while doing test burns of Stabilate, to determine its potential.

This article has been abridged.