The City of Surrey is moving closer to realizing the new organics biofuel facility with today’s issuance of a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the project.

The facility will process residential and commercial kitchen and yard waste into a renewable fuel, which will be used to power our new waste trucks. The 80,000 metric tonne per year facility will be the largest of its kind in Canada and will help the City and Metro Vancouver achieve the regional 70 per cent waste diversion target by 2015.

“Surrey’s new organics biofuel facility will establish a new benchmark in Canada and provide environmental benefits to the entire region. It will help us reduce emissions, create viable new energy infrastructure, divert waste from the landfill, and become more sustainable in our operations,” says Mayor Dianne Watts. “As part of our new waste management system building an organics biofuel processing facility in Surrey is the next major step in our program.”

Surrey’s new Rethink Waste program was launched on October 1st, 2012, and includes curbside organics collection and an entire fleet of compressed natural gas waste collection trucks. The new program has already led to a 43 per cent reduction in garbage sent to the landfill. Once the biofuel facility is operating, Surrey will be home to the only fully-integrated organics waste management system in North America.