Across Canada, rural municipalities are working hard to tackle waste management challenges in the face of unique and complex challenges. With limited or ageing infrastructure, high per-capita waste collection and transportation costs, long distances to centralized processing facilities and fewer opportunities for public-private partnerships, efficient waste solutions may seem out of reach.For many of these communities, waste management isn’t just about bins and trucks. It’s about scale, distance and tough trade-offs. A single collection truck might travel dozens of kilometres to service a handful of homes, driving up costs in ways urban centres rarely face. Limited staff capacity means fewer hands to manage increasingly complex systems, while proposals for new facilities can spark difficult debates over how to balance industrial needs with farmland and natural habitat protection.Yet, small communities across the country are stepping up: many have introduced composting programs, piloted regional collaborations and made use of small-scale solutions. Organic waste, in particular, is both a major challenge and a promising resource for rural municipalities. By transforming it into renewable energy, communities can reduce landfill use, lower carbon emissions, cut costs and strengthen their energy independence. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund’s Organic Waste-to-Energy (OWE) and Net-Zero Transformation (NZT) initiatives provide exactly this pathway. These initiatives are designed to meet rural communities where they are—providing funding, training and resources to transform waste into local energy, reduce emissions and boost economic and energy resilience—all while keeping the benefits close to home. GMF’s OWE offer supports energy recovery projects for small and medium-sized communities, focusing on solutions such as heat recovery from composting, anaerobic digestion, landfill gas, and wastewater, as well as low-temperature landfill geothermal heat. These options provide municipalities with accessible, scalable ways to recover energy without requiring major infrastructure investments.Across Canada, a growing number of projects are demonstrating remarkable innovation and impact, showcasing the country’s leadership in turning organic waste into clean, renewable energy. Take for example the Teeswater Wastewater Treatment Plant in South Bruce, Ontario, which, with GMF support, is being upgraded with anaerobic treatment to improve water quality for Lake Huron. This involves cutting pollutants while reducing energy use by 20% and generating about $350,000 in additional annual revenue.  (ICE TORONTO)

Fonte notizia: https://wasterecyclingmag.ca/