Curbside green bins aim to launch this year but only one company bid to process organic waste

Food waste might not have to travel far from your curbside green bin.

CTV News London has learned that city hall’s public tender seeking a company to process separated household organic waste received just a single bid.

Convertus operates south of Highway 401 in London, Ont. in the same location as the former organic waste processing facility called Orgaworld.

“The procurement process, whether it’s one bid or ten bids, carries on,” explained Jay Stanford, the city’s director of climate change, environment, and solid waste. “The due diligence and the review of the proposal must occur and that’ll be reported out to the Civic Works Committee in mid-July.”

With a timeline to launch a green bin program this year, receiving only a single bid potentially limits city council’s options.

According to its website, Convertus was created in 2019 by the merger of Renewi Canada and Waste Treatment Technologies North America to be a part of the circular economy.

Nearby homeowner Allan Tipping credits changes by the company for greatly reducing the once infamous ‘South London stink.’

“The last couple of years have been pretty good,” he admitted.

However, Tipping worries that if Convertus receives the green bin waste contract, the end product will be an organic material called NASM (non-agricultural source materials), rather than compost.

The application of NASM to agricultural fields must follow provincial regulations.

“I strongly think that if the City of London is going to get involved in this, we should be demanding compost. We should be going green, not part-way green,” he claimed.

Stanford said NASM was one of the potential end products listed in the tender documents.

“Whether it goes on soil in London in the case for compost, or in the case of NASM on farmers’ fields across southwestern Ontario that are registered with nutrient management plans, in both cases this is ideal,” he explained. “You’re returning [the organic material] back to essentially where it came from, back to the soil.”

Rollout of the green bin program has been delayed about two years because supply chain issues slowed delivery of the trucks needed to collect the waste from curbs and deliver it for processing.

Stanford reported that the first trucks have finally started to arrive — but launching the green bin program citywide requires the delivery of the last truck to complete the fleet.

Its delivery date remains unknown.

“We hope over the next month to have those final dates of when the last few vehicles will arrive. Then we can actually narrow down that timeframe and have a specific start up date,” he told CTV News London.

Stanford maintained that his target for a citywide launch is late fall or early winter.

“I’d like them to step back a little bit and review this properly,” Tipping argued. “Make sure we have a carbon footprint analysis. I don’t want this to be just another greenwashing.”

Stanford said the green bin program has net carbon emission benefits, “We will be introducing new compressed natural gas vehicles. They will be burning a fuel that still contributes to the greenhouse gas, but a lot less than the diesel burning vehicles we have now.”

The Civic Works Committee will receive an update on the green bin program on July 18.