Editor's note: The following does not apply to Barrie and Orillia, which handle their own waste management as separated cities.
The county’s trash will be going on a road trip to Brampton beginning in 2026 before going up in flames.
Simcoe County council voted in favour of a staff recommendation at Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting to award a 20-year garbage export contract to Brampton-based Emerald Energy From Waste Inc.
“I think council is well versed on the challenges around solid waste management, not only here in the county but across the province," said Rob Elliot, the county’s general manager of engineering, planning and environment. "Staff have been working diligently to look at all options across the various streams, including organics, recycling.
"The one thing we hope council will find great comfort in is staff have explored and is recommending to you today, a long-term solution on the garbage stream,” he added.
To ensure the county has secured long-term garbage disposal/processing capacity, staff issued a request for proposal (RFP) earlier this year for the long-term external management of the county’s garbage (both curbside and facilities garbage), and ultimately opted to bring forward Emerald’s bid to council.
Staff noted their energy-from-waste (EFW) facility is suitably equipped to manage the county’s garbage now and into the future.
The facility is also in the process of being redesigned, which will allow for more capacity in the future.
A lot of things with waste management have been moving at "lightning speed" in the area, said Rob McCullough, the county’s director of solid waste management.
“As we’ve been reporting to you, there’s a great lack of disposal capacity in the province,” he said at the meeting, noting there’s a little more than nine years' worth of disposal capacity left in the province.
“No one is running around with their hair on fire trying to solve this issue, so that leaves each of us to try to decide what can be done best," McCullough said. "What we know is with the diminishing supply of disposal capacity, as that is exacerbated, every day we move forward there are fewer landfills able to take the material.
"More and more people want to take their materials to those sites. That’s going to leave us in a position of upward price pressure for those remaining options.”
In Simcoe County, landfills are quickly running out of capacity, said McCullough, adding the county was unsuccessful in operating a new county landfill and ultimately decided not to pursue any new sites.
The county began exporting a significant portion of its waste in 2013 — about 25,000 tonnes of curbside garbage annually, he said. That represents about 60 per cent of the region’s curbside garbage.
Once the Collingwood landfill closes, that will increase by another 15,000 tonnes of garbage per year as well.
Landfills are projected to be closed by 2027, with a one-year emergency disposal capacity at the Oro-Medonte landfill, located on Old Barrie Road.
“We have taken material to this location in the past. The very first five years of garbage export it went to that facility which was under different ownership,” McCullough said. “A huge factor for us is the environmental part. This is a much closer haul distance than where we are going now … in Niagara.”
Emerald also has an "advanced energy capture system," which converts waste into heat, steam and electricity, as well as a pilot project where they are looking at hydrogen as a source of power.
“The costs of everything in this world, including waste management, are going up significantly,” McCullough said.
By 2028, when the county expects to be exporting 100 per cent of its waste, the cost based on the existing contract would be close to $7.5 million, he added.
“The new cost to the county, both for organics and garbage processing, equates to an approximately $400,000 difference than the current contracts in right now," McCullough said.
Collingwood Mayor Yvonne Hamlin called the plan a “win-win.”
“I like that the distance is relatively short and energy from waste is an excellent solution,” she said.
Innisfil Deputy Mayor Kenneth Fowler called the recommendation “one of the best solutions right now,” but expressed concern over the length of the contract.
“Twenty years is a long time. What’s going to happen in the next 10 or 15? … Have we looked at our own system and what the cost would be for us to build our own system?” he asked.
Oro-Medonte Mayor Randy Greenlaw agreed.
“My concern about the 20-year agreement is we’re kicking the ball down the road and getting comfortable and taking our foot off the gas pedal," he said. "Incineration is the way we have to go eventually and I think we need to push that agenda hard.
"I’d feel more comfortable with a 10-year contract and five-year extension, which gives us the time needed, but not take our foot off the gas pedal to look at alternative solutions to this problem," Greenlaw added.
With the landfill crisis coming down the pipe quickly, McCullough explained that staff felt it was in the county’s best interest to recommend a 20-year contract.
“That is subjecting ourselves to unknown price fluctuation," he added. "We want to have stable forces moving forward … We are afraid of the market forces when we’re running out of disposal capacity.
"What that’s going to do to the cost of a tonne of garbage for disposal in the province is quite scary. This makes us feel a lot easier for an economic solution going forward,” McCullough added.
The price of building a 120,000-tonne-per-year facility would likely be between $150 million and $200 million in capital costs alone, noted McCullough. And given the county’s current output, he also said it would only be able to supply about 60,000 tonnes, requiring them to find outside sources to reach capacity.
McCullough also reminded county council about the unpopularity of such a facility in most municipalities.
“The NIMBY-ism of developing them is not less, but more than a landfill from what I have seen," he said.
Midland Mayor Bill Gordon said this option will ultimately buy the county 20 years of peace of mind.
“We don’t have to worry about a 'Site 40-X' and trying to propose a landfill again, because nobody wants to relive that," he said, referring to the controversial facility proposed for Tiny Township which was later scrapped.
"Unfortunately, garbage is just one of those awful things that we just keep creating," said Gordon. "If we have an opportunity here, I would, at almost any cost, happily see it shipped to a facility that is doing everything it can to recapture and reclaim the energy that is used to combust that garbage."
Gordon also touched on the costs involved.
“This is a lot of money, but I believe it’s money well spent," he said. "Perhaps somewhere along that 20-year path something will change at the provincial or federal level … and in the meantime this is the responsible way to go.
"It means we won’t have to pick that old scab about a new landfill site anywhere in Simcoe County in our lifetime.”
The contract with Emerald would begin Nov. 1, 2026, once the current curbside garbage disposal contract ends.
After going into closed session Tuesday, council returned and voted to approve the staff recommendation.
Council still needs to ratify the motion at its next meeting.
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