It’s an issue past city councils have kicked down the road time and again. Ask any city councillor what’s the one issue they would rather not have to face while in office and trying to pick a future landfill site is usually at the top of their list.

One way to avoid having to create a new landfill site is to purchase an existing private site. The city is considering just such a purchase.

The City’s existing landfill site on Trail Road in the west end has a current life expectancy of 10-15 years. It has been extended several times in the past – most recently in 2014 – when city council voted to divert industrial, commercial and institutional waste to private landfills and accept only residential waste.

But even with that decision and the newly passed three-bag limit on residential waste collection, the clock has continued to tick.

In a presentation to city council last spring, staff unveiled three possible options to deal with the city’s future waste disposal needs.

The first option is to continuing using the Trail Road facility until it reaches capacity and then negotiate deals with private landfill sites. There are two issues with this option. The first is that using a private site compared to a municipal site would be substantially more expensive. The other issue is that at least two private sites – the Waste Management facility on Carp Road and the Waste Connections facility on Navan Road – will also be nearing full capacity in 10-15 years.

The second option is to build a waste to energy incinerator at a cost of $500-$860 million.

The third option is to build a new landfill facility on a site to be determined at a cost of $440-$760 million.

Not surprisingly, the third option is the least preferred.

Option 2, building a waste to energy incinerator, is already under study. There are five waste-to-energy facilities currently operating in Canada, including one in Durham-York Region and one in Brampton. There are 490 waste-to-energy facilities in operation in Europe, including in countries like Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.

China and Japan also use waste-to-energy technology to dispose of their waste.

City staff are currently in the middle of an “in-depth evaluation” of waste-to-energy technology that will be presented to city council after next year’s election.

A new fourth option would be to combine options one and three by purchasing an existing private landfill site. To that end, the city has entered a bidding competition to buy the Capital Region Resource Recovery Centre at the inter-section of Hwy 417 and Boundary Road near Carlsbad Springs.

The 475-acre property is owned by Taggart Miller Environmental Services. The city entered a bid earlier this year which has progressed to Phase 2 of the acquisition process. The proposed bid is contingent on the city’s ability engage in a public consultations.

The site has already been approved by the Ontario government to receive up to 450,000 tonnes of waste annually, with an expected lifespan for 30 years.

The site was opposed during the provincial approval process by local residents who formed the Dump this Dump2 group. The site was ultimately approved despite the group’s objections.

One of the reasons the city submitted a bid to purchase the site is to keep it out of the hands of other municipalities or private companies which would end up bringing in waste from other parts of the province.