Green cart contractor defaults, program continues as city looks for solution

The City of Saskatoon has run out of patience with Green Prairie Environmental.

On Wednesday, the city announced it is looking at new options for the city’s curbside organics program after Green Prairie Environmental (GPE) defaulted on its contract. Green cart collections will continue as normal, according to a release from the city.

“We’re back to square zero from where we were three years ago,” said Brendan Lemke, director or water and waste operations for the city.

GPE was awarded the contract in 2020, but ran into problems when it failed to secure a location to process the organic waste.

The city said its staff supported GPE in its efforts to find a suitable location following its initial denial in the RM of Corman Park.

“We are disappointed that the successful vendor was unable to provide organics processing services under the contract, but are fortunate to have measures in place allowing us to pursue other options to avoid disruption of the program,” said Lemke.

Lemke said the city will continue working with Loraas while it looks for a permanent solution.

“We’re looking at the options of whether it’s viable for us to construct our own facility and operate that, or have a contractor come and operate our own facility, or whether there’s just the need to out and re-tender this processing contract and see what we get from (the) market,” he said.

At this point, organics materials are being composted by Loraas unless they’re contaminated.

Temporary future options also include processing some of the waste at the Saskatoon Regional Waste Management Centre and the West Compost Depot on Highway 7.

By contract, Lemke said Green Prairie Environmental is responsible for any increased costs associated with the city’s contingencies – and it has cost a fair amount money so far. He estimated the costs to date were somewhere between $1 million and $2 million.

The additional costs, and the short- and long-term plans are something that council will have to consider during its upcoming budget deliberations at the end of November.

“We’re trying to pull that together in time for budget so that council can make that decision and know what the implications are on that decision,” Lemke added.

Since collection began in May, the city said more than 15,000 tonnes of organic waste have successfully been diverted from the landfill.

A report with long-term options will be discussed at the Environment, Utilities and Corporate Services Committee meeting on Nov. 1.

–With files from Lara Fominoff