Lafarge Canada plans to open a facility in Burnaby that could process all of Metro Vancouver's contaminated soil. The soil-washing facility would divert large volumes of contaminated soils that are being landfilled at present.
The facility will also process bottom ash, a waste product from Metro's incinerator plant in Burnaby. The incinerator plant burns approximately 240,000tpa of waste - around a quarter of Metro's total waste output. The rest is sent to the Vancouver landfill in Delta, which has now reached approximately half of its capacity.
The City of Burnaby has granted preliminary planning approval while the associated building permit was applied for on 6 March. An internal review is currently being carried out. "Through the building permit process, the applicant will be required to comply with Burnaby's environmental bylaws. Metro Vancouver bylaws and provincial environmental regulations must also be met," a city spokesperson said.
Following processing of the waste Lafarge Canada will use the ash at its Richmond cement plant.
