How is WET waste processed?
When WET waste is received at the Westmorland-Albert Solid Waste Corporation’s facility from the Kings region it is taken to the WET plant tipping floor. It is then loaded onto a conveyor and sent through a bag opener. The waste is then introduced to a rotating trommel screen. Materials larger than approximately 3”, such as baby diapers and containers, are retained by the screen and area rejected to landfill. Organic material falls through and continues through the process, passing under a magnet to remove ferrous metals. It is then shredded, mixed with bulking agents such as wood shavings, and directed to one of eight silos for primary composting.
The decomposing material is computer-controlled for air, moisture and temperature levels and is regularly turned by machinery, which pushes the materials a few meters a day until it reaches the end of the silo. By the time the material reaches the end of the silo, it has been 90% composted and is discharged to the refining system where foreign materials are removed from the finished compost before it is directed to a maturing pad outside the Wet Plant. The entire process from raw materials to useable compost takes approximately 6-8 months.
