The Christian Farmer's Federation of Ontario says moving towards a circular economy can start with organic wastes.
Suzanne Armstrong is the Director of Research Manager of Board and Committee Services for the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario.
She describes a recent tour of the Walker Industries campus in the Niagara region that includes office buildings, a gravel quarry, a working landfill, a recycling and garbage drop-off, a composting facility, and a fertilizer processing facility.
"The campus also illustrated the long-term thinking that has emerged as the company has expanded into more and more areas from the original gravel pit operations," says Armstrong. "Spent gravel pits have been converted into landfills. The company is also doing research on methods to restore the filled landfill sites back to workable productive farmland on the surface. The landfill sites are equipped with a methane capture system, which they have been marketing as voluntary greenhouse gas reduction offsets."
Armstrong says the company's approach to managing organic wastes fits with the Ontario government’s Waste Free strategy and there is a focus on processing organic waste materials into products that are valuable and sought after in the market place.
