Metro Vancouver is planning to hold a Construction and Demolition Waste Reduction Forum in the spring of 2025.
It’s to be a one-day event aimed at facilitating information sharing and discussions on strategies and policy incentives to reduce and prevent construction and demolition waste.
The forum will bring together member jurisdictions, as well as potentially other local governments outside the region, with industry members invited to provide insights on demolition alternatives such as house moving and deconstruction.
A regional staff report also notes that waste from the construction and demolition sector represents about one-third of waste sent to disposal in Metro Vancouver, which was around 338,955 tonnes per year in 2022.
Wood waste represents 48 per cent of the total disposed construction and demolition waste in the region and comes from various sources, including the demolition of 3,000 single-family homes in the Metro Vancouver region per year, the report notes.
With the transition of single-family lots to multi-unit lots, demolitions are expected to continue to increase in the region. At the same time, limited markets for recovered reusable materials and processing facilities create an urgent need for alternatives to disposal for construction waste, the report adds.
According to the Vancouver Landfill Annual Report for 2023, the landfill, located in Delta, is authorized to accept up to 750,000 tonnes of solid waste for disposal each year.
Last year, 743,809 tonnes of waste, including municipal solid waste, bottom ash and demolition material, were disposed at the landfill, which is operated by the City of Vancouver.
The report notes that demolition material is mainly wood waste with small amounts of soft construction material, which must meet the minimum criteria for wood content of 80 percent.
In 2023, a total of 20,932 tonnes of demolition material was received at the landfill, a decrease from the 52,969 tonnes received in 2022, likely due to a landfill rate increase in January 2023 and suggesting a slow-down in demolition activities in the region.
The Vancouver Landfill also receives construction and demolition processing residual waste from around the region, a waste stream composed of the materials that remain after construction and demolition waste has been processed to remove recyclable materials.
In 2023, a total of 64,524 tonnes of that material was received from licensed transfer stations and material recovery facilities in the region, down from 96,173 tonnes in 2022.
The annual report on the 72nd Avenue landfill’s operation also notes that, to date, a total of 126.8 hectares have been closed.
That represents 56 per cent of the 225-hectare landfill footprint. The remaining capacity, as of Dec. 31, 2023, was 4,913,453 tonnes.
In 1999, Vancouver, Metro Vancouver and Delta entered into a long-term agreement whereby the operational life was extended to 2037, and the facility is to then close.
