Most of us rarely think about where our garbage goes \u2014 but for staff at the Steinbach landfill, every day is full of surprises.<\/p>\n
Compost can be a wild ride<\/p>\n
Eldon Wallman says some items end up in the compost that definitely don\u2019t belong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe end up with car batteries and mountain bikes in the compost. It\u2019s a one-stop drop for some people,\u201d Wallman said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
He stresses that yard waste \u2014 grass, leaves, garden material \u2014 is what should go in. \u201cNo meat, bones, or fish. And definitely no batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turning up the heat<\/p>\n
After collection, compost is formed into long rows called windrows. There, it naturally heats up to around 60\u201365 degrees Celsius to kill pathogens.<\/p>\n
Brian Davis explains, \u201cWe turn it about once a month just to mix it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallman adds with a grin: \u201cFluff it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The compost takes roughly six months to mature. Once ready, it\u2019s screened for large sticks, paper bags, and, occasionally, leftover mountain bikes before being returned to residents.<\/p>\n
Waste management and hazards<\/p>\n
Steinbach\u2019s landfill handles roughly 40,000 metric tonnes of waste annually, after recyclables and organics are diverted. Wallman notes the city ranks among the best in North America for waste management.<\/p>\n
Lithium batteries, however, remain a serious concern.<\/p>\n
Davis said, \u201cLithiums are the worst, exactly, because they will self-combust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallman adds, \u201cAlmost weekly\u2026 fortunately it happens when we\u2019re at work\u2026 it\u2019s pretty instant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents are urged to dispose of batteries<\/a> at the hazardous waste depot. The Jake Epp Library<\/a> also accepts batteries for safe disposal.<\/p>\n A peek at daily life<\/p>\n A typical day begins with staff compacting garbage and managing commercial trucks, while the scale opens for residents. Seasonal items like shingles and Christmas trees often dominate fall drop-offs.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can tell what season it is just by what\u2019s coming in,\u201d Wallman said.<\/p>\n Leaving it better than before<\/p>\n After nearly two decades of improvements, Wallman says the landfill is vastly different from 2005. \u201cAt the end of my life, I want the landfill to be better than when I started\u2026 it\u2019s head over heels different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For Wallman and Davis, the best part of the job is the people.<\/p>\n Wallman: \u201cI\u2019ve always been serving people\u2026 I\u2019ll continue to do that in some form or another.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis: \u201cI enjoy the variety… office work, getting out, seeing different things\u2026 it\u2019s never the same day twice.\u201d<\/p>\n The takeaway? Don\u2019t toss batteries in the garbage, and definitely keep your mountain bikes out of the compost.<\/p>\n -With files from Carly Koop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most of us rarely think about where our garbage goes \u2014 but for staff at the Steinbach landfill,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-230017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}