Meade Creek Recycling Centre Upgrades & Incinerator Ash Landfill Closure Project

The Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) will upgrade the Meade Creek recycling centre and waste transfer station to increase the number of materials accepted on site as well as reducing barriers such as long wait times and poor accessibility. The project is expected to increase the amount of material recycled at the facility from 433 tonnes to 750 tonnes per year, and to improve the facility’s diversion rate by 10%, from 48% to 58%. The CVRD’s regional recycling rate is 74%, and this project will improve it by an incremental 0.03%. The Meade Creek Recycling Centre serves the West Cowichan communities of Lake Cowichan, Youbou, Honeymoon Bay and Skutz Falls, which together have a resident population of approximately 6,600, which increases by 100,000 in the summer months due to recreational visitors. The Meade Creek Recycling Centre provides garbage and recycling drop-off in addition to what is offered by curbside collection programs in the region. Non-curbside recyclables represent the majority of what is collected at the facility including items such as yard waste, household products (e.g. lightbulbs, batteries etc.), as well as commercial recycling and garbage. The project is in line with the CVRD’s commitment to Zero Waste. The facility will be designed to accommodate future improvements in the separation of organics and recyclables. It is targeting a 25% reduction in energy consumption on site and considering the installation of a 10.5 kW solar photovoltaic array which would make the site carbon neutral . The project will incorporate community feedback though surveys and public meetings, and will track waste diversion, GHG reductions, service improvements, material re-use and building energy use. The project is unique in that the Meade Creek Center is located on an old municipal solid waste incinerator site. The upgrades will close and contain the landfill and incorporate the use of incinerator ash as fill for the construction of waste depots, allowing 27,000 tonnes of waste material to be re-used and reducing the costs and GHG emissions for the project. This approach was used successfully at the CVRD’s Peerless Road Recycling Centre Upgrades project completed in 2014, but prior to that, had never been done in the province of BC. As well as meeting all provincial guidelines for containment of waste and risk management, the project will recover and recycle metals contained in the incinerator ash. After project completion an environmental monitoring program will be implemented at the site in order to ensure that risks to ground- and surface-water have been mitigated to the satisfaction of the BC Ministry of Environment, in accordance with the Environmental Management Act. (Project description from original funding application)