Turning organic waste into fuel and compost

Surrey Biofuel Processing Facility

The City of Surrey runs a multi-channel Rethink Waste Program that helps residents and businesses separate waste into garbage, recycling, and organics—and the Surrey Biofuel Facility is one particularly notable component in that plan. As part of a public-private partnership with Orgaworld Canada (a leading organics waste treatment company) and Smith Bros & Wilson Ltd. (construction), we helped the City of Surrey put this facility to work.

The process converts collected kitchen and yard waste, along with commercial waste from across the region, into 100% renewable natural gas and compost. The natural gas is used to fuel the City’s waste collection trucks—with any excess sold back to the natural gas utility—closing the loop. Whereas the compost product is suitable for landscaping and agricultural applications.

Designed to receive and process 115,000 tonnes of organic waste annually, the Surrey Biofuel Processing Facility will process 100% of the City’s organic waste over the 25-year contract term. It’s estimated that this diversion of waste from the landfill will amount to approximately 25,000 tonnes of CO2 reduction per year. That’s the equivalent of taking 5,200 passenger vehicles off the road.