A lack of provincial direction has put municipalities in a bind when it comes to recycling organic waste.
They have until 2025 to start diverting 70 per cent of organic waste from Windsor and 50 per cent from the county, but while the provincial government has legislated a deadline, it has not said what technologies will be allowed.
The legislation only mentions two, composting and anaerobic digestion. Both are expected to meet with stiff community opposition because of the odours associated with them.
DiCarlo would like to avoid a repeat of what happened when the county opened new landfills.
"It was just a mess, and I think that's what we're getting into again with organics," he said.
Without a list of allowable technologies, municipalities can not price out how much a facility would cost. Without costing, a facility will be a hard sell to municipal councils.
"If you get into trying to recover energy and sell it to try and recover some of your costs, [the provincial government says] that portion will not count towards your required recycling threshold," explained Amherstburg Mayor Aldo DiCarlo. "That really puts municipalities in a bit of a bind because if we go by the two approved, that increases our costs without any ability to recover some of that."
So what happens if the region commits to a technology and a plant design now and the regulations change? Could a plant be retooled?
"The best the consultant could give at this time is that you'd probably have to gut the plant and start over," added DiCarlo.
After a four-hour meeting Tuesday, Amherstburg Mayor Aldo DiCarlo said only one thing was clear.
"It's pretty clear everybody wants to be involved with the organics recycling. The regional approach is the preferred way forward," he said. "Our concern is that there were a lot more unanswered questions -- To move forward with such a large project, we really need more information."
He describes it as "a chicken and the egg" kind of conundrum.
A review digging deeper into the issue could come back to the authority in 90 days. Hopefully, it will provide some of the finance and technology questions.
