The company that owns the Carp landfill is planning a massive expansion that includes a gas-to-energy facility, a recycling centre for Habitat for Humanity and an environmentally engineered landfill capable of processing 400,000 tonnes of residual waste per year.
Waste Management Inc. announced the proposal yesterday and area residents are already expressing concern about the project.
Stittsville Coun. Shad Qadri was one of the most vocal opponents to a previous proposal to expand the site. Residents of Stittsville have already contacted him to express their concern over the project.
Qadri said he was pleased with the recycling and waste diversion elements of the proposal, but he was not happy with the size of the landfill included in the plan.
“In this day and age, with all the technologies we have available, it makes no sense to do landfilling in any form in any community,” said Qadri.
The new landfill would be used for industrial, commercial and institutional waste. The emphasis would be on recycling and diversion, but residual waste is unavoidable, said Ross Wallace, Ottawa site manager for Waste Management.
“There is a need for some space somewhere for the residual waste to go because we are running out of space,” said Wallace.
The current dump will be full in about 18 months, he said. If the province and community approve the proposal, the West Carleton Environmental Centre would open in around three years.
None of Ottawa’s curbside residential garbage is directed to the Carp landfill.
