Convertus Canada Ltd. - Environmental Compliance Approval (waste)

This amended Environmental Compliance Approval (waste disposal site) has been issued to Convertus Canada Ltd. for the existing waste disposal site (processing) facility located at 4675 Wellington Road South, London City, County of Middlesex.

This existing facility is a 4.17-hectare Waste Disposal Site (processing) serving the Province of Ontario, for receipt, temporary storage, transfer and pre-processing and aerobic biodegradation, including composting, of solid non-hazardous, domestic, institutional, commercial or industrial organic waste, encompassing the following:

• one enclosed processing building with the following:
  • a receiving hall, a traffic/loading hall and material receiving and preparation areas, where the incoming organic waste is unloaded and pre-processed in an electric-powered shredder to open plastic bags and shred the waste, is mixed with mid-fraction organics from the screening process, the leaf and yard waste or, if available, the shredded root wood material and wood chips removed from the biofilters at the site;
  • 12 aerated concrete tunnels, where the prepared organic waste mix undergoes active composting;
  • screening area to screen the output from the concrete tunnels and where inorganic contaminants in the undersized fraction are removed in a magnetic separator and a ballistic separator;
  • curing building to stockpile the decontaminated undersized fraction as a processed organic waste destined for an end-use as a NASM, or to stockpile and cure the undersized fraction into compost;
  • ventilation system to maintain a negative pressure in the processing building at all times, by drawing air from the receiving and traffic halls, screening area and mechanical rooms, and the curing building. This air will either be used as process air in the concrete tunnels before collection in an exhaust duct leading to the odour abatement equipment, or be led directly to the odour abatement equipment that consists of the following:

1. one roof-mounted mix-box, receiving ventilation air either directly from the building via bypass valves between inlet and outlet duct of the concrete tunnels to divert the air from the building directly to the odour abatement equipment or from the concrete tunnels, to split the flow into two equal streams before flowing into integrated ammonia scrubbers;
2. two roof-mounted integrated ammonia scrubber housings, each consisting of two sections in series:
3. one packed pre-scrubber, for the removal of dust and aerosols, filled with a polypropylene medium, with water spray nozzles on the front, for humidification and pre-treatment of odour in the air, including one combined water tank serving the two sections of both scrubber housings;
4. one packed ammonia scrubber with vertical mounted spray nozzles, using sulphuric acid as a scrubbing medium, for the removal of ammonia from the air. The air from the scrubber housings is fed into two parallel-mounted tube air-water heat exchangers. The water from the clean water loop from the heat exchanger is then cooled in a crossflow two-cell cooling tower on the roof of the building and the two air streams that exit the integrated scrubber housings and heat exchangers discharge into one ductwork leading to the biofilters;
5. four enclosed up-flow biofilters, all constructed in concrete tunnels and operating in parallel, filled with filtering medium consisting of shredded root wood materials and wood chips, equipped with a water sprinkler system at the top;
6. three stack fans drawing air from the biofilters and discharging into a ground-based stack; and
7. one booster fan, mounted on the roof of the processing building, drawing ambient air into the suction sides of the three stack fans before final emission through an exhaust stack extending 60 metres above grade;

• one outdoor leaf and yard waste storage area, measuring 40 metres in length and 15 metres in width located west of the enclosed processing building, where incoming leaf and yard waste is unloaded and screened immediately to remove odorous materials such as grass clippings from the leaf and yard waste for transfer to the enclosed building for processing. The remaining leaf and yard waste is moved into the enclosed processing building on an as-needed basis, to be shredded and mixed with the incoming organic waste;
• one outdoor storage area, located south-east of the enclosed processing building, for temporary storage of unused shredded root wood biofilter media; and
• one single weigh scale bridge to monitor and track the incoming and the outgoing materials

This amendment approves the shipping and receiving hours to accommodate truck delivery schedules since Convertus needs to extend the facility’s hours to receive an increased volume of truck traffic as a result of being awarded the City of London’s Green Bin composting contract.

This approval amends the shipping and receiving hours to Monday to Friday from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The facility operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

The waste disposal site serves the Province of Ontario. The organic waste quantities received, processed, and stored remain unchanged as those previously approved. The doors will be kept closed except to allow for traffic, and the facility will remain under negative pressure. No other operational changes will occur.