The City of Regina and Cowessess First Nation are partnering to build the city’s new composting facility.

“This new facility is going to help the City reach its target of diverting 65 per cent of our waste from our landfill,” City director of water, waste and environment Carolyn Kalim said at the announcement Monday. ”The landfill is the City’s largest emitter of methane gas, which is a powerful climate change gas, much stronger than carbon dioxide.”

“This is a really big move to have that out of the landfill, as well it aligns with our goal to be completely renewable as per the Energy and Standard Sustainability framework by 2050,” she added.

Awasis Organic Ltd., which is owned by the First Nation, will build and operate the new food and yard waste processing plant approximately three kilometres east of Regina along Highway 33 on land also owned by Cowessess.

“This partnership demonstrates what economic reconciliation looks like in practice, co-ownership, not consultation; shared prosperity, not one-time transactions; long-term environmental responsibility, not short-term fixes by diverting Regina’s residential food yard waste from landfills,” said Rebecca Acikahte, Cowessess Ventures’ business development manager.

“This agreement reflects the City’s dedication to finding innovative and sustainable solutions for residential food and yard waste while honouring Indigenous stewardship,” the City’s operations manager Kurtis Doney said in a statement. “After months of careful collaboration and planning, we’re pleased to move forward with a solution that meets the needs of the community and supports a more sustainable future.”

Awasis and the City hope to begin construction in the spring and have the facility operational by the fall of 2026.

Shifting focus

The announcement comes after the City was forced to terminate a previous contract in January it signed in 2023 which sought to build the facility near Pilot Butte – a project which drew much criticism.

That facility was to be built and operated by EverGen.

At the time, the town and its residents argued there would be severe odour concerns, leading the R.M. of Edenwold shut down the plans.

Cowessess believes this facility will not release any odour from the materials in the facility.

“There will be no smell, no emissions at all,” Acikahte said. “It immediately goes into the hopper, so it won’t be sitting there getting stagnant or anything like that.”

The City is hopeful this new facility will be at the cutting edge in the industry.

“The City went through our standard procurement process,” Kalim said. “Through that we were unable to find a contract that made sense. We also became aware of some interests Awasis had in putting a biotech facility together. We’ve had many conversations with lots of different food yard waste processors, lots of different technologies.”

“This proposal was incredibly strong and the City is very excited to go down this path,” she added.

How it works

The new facility will convert food and yard waste into what is known as ‘biochar,’ a substance that can be added to soil to improve moisture and nutrient retention.

”There is no combustion process anywhere within the system,” director of Awasis Alistair Haughton explained. “You’re not burning anything. You’re literally baking it.”

Over time, the charcoal assists with “negative emissions,” which refers to practices and substances that help remove greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the atmosphere.

“We lock that gas component into the charcoal and it will not be released for hundreds, if not thousands of years,” Haughton added. “Once it comes out of the process, it is not locked in. It could be used as a soil amendment and, on average, will save 15 to 25 per cent water usage.”

Haughton says the byproduct will have significant industrial applications, including in agriculture, landscaping and more.

“This is not new technology,” he said. “It mitigates the use of commercial fertilizers, which do have a lot of chemical compounds. Our focus is to offset the use of the commercial fertilizer by using a more natural, regenerative products, such as biochar.”

The contract

The City says it has signed an eight-year contract with Cowessess with an option to extend it to 10 years.

Within the 2025 budget, $1.8 million has been earmarked for its construction.

Cowessess says there will be little additional costs to its nation and expects initial revenue generation from the site to be nearly $1 million.

“In the first year, around $900,000 to start with,” Acikahte said. “And five-per-cent royalties on the biochar [Awasis sells].”