View of fans, ducting, VFDs, and control server

Capacity (tpy)

2,500

Technologies Used

Client Needs

in 2024, ECS worked with the city of Medicine Hat to design and construct a pilot-scale food waste CASP system. The city, located in southeastern Alberta, has long encouraged residents to compost their organics at home while offering a seasonal, opt-in, curbside yard waste collection program. The city’s long-range waste management plan includes strategies to provide comprehensive city-wide organics collection for food waste and yard waste in an effort to minimize landfill disposal volumes and emissions. Yard waste is currently composted at the city-owned landfill, where the new pilot system was built in July of 2024.

For the duration of the pilot, food waste feedstocks were collected alongside yard waste from 4,000 eligible residents in the city. The pilot program ran through December 2024, and information will be used by the city to drive future composting efforts.

ECS Solution

The pilot-scale composting system has four bunkers, each positively aerated using HDPE pipe-on grade. Feedstocks tipped onsite and mixed in batches using a portable horizontal mixer to achieve a BMP mix. Piles are built over the aeration pipes using a front-end loader. The CASP system can compost 2,500 tons of material per year, with retention times varying from 21-28 days. Cabled temperature probes provide continuous feedback to the damper actuators, modulating airflow and controlling pile temperatures.

Despite the extreme cold, Medicine Hat has been able to successfully process organics through the winter and keep diversion efforts going.