Resource Regeneration On Vancouver Island

  • 20th Feb 2022
  • 0
  • Best Practices

Soil is a valuable resource and costly to excavate, mine, and relocate to various project and disposal sites.

But unfortunately, the soil is often treated as a waste product.

That’s why we invited Claire Lewis of Global Remediation Technology (“GRT”) to learn about resource regeneration on Vancouver Island.

Watch the webinar replay to learn how GRT turns excess soils into useful construction aggregates.

Webinar Highlights

Current Problem:

Problem One: Construction and development generate excess soil that requires off-site disposal leading to a ripple effect problem:

  • Excess soils filling limited landfill airspace
  • Increase in offshore and illegal dumping
  • Significant greenhouse gas emissions to transport soils to distant landfills
  • Increased disposal costs
  • Valuable materials end up in landfills

Problem Two: Escalating worldwide demand to support concrete production and urban development is depleting virgin aggregate supply:

  • Virgin aggregate and sand are finite resources
  • Mining is hard on the environment & ecosystems
  • Aggregates are shipped further distances to market at higher transportation and environmental cost

The cradle-to-grave process of ‘mine, fill, excavate, dispose’ is inefficient and environmentally poor.

Common Challenges For Material Reuse include:

  • Excess soils are a mixture of sand, gravel, rock, and clay. Those mixtures do not meet geotechnical requirements for reuse.
  • Excess soils can contain elevated concentrations of contaminants due to human activities.
  • The timing of excess soils and material needed for construction rarely match.

The GRT Solution

GRT has introduced an innovative solution to Vancouver Island that enables excess or contaminated soils and muds—once bound for landfills—to be cleaned and reintegrated into local markets.

Excess soil contains a high percentage of reusable materials.

  • Sand, gravel, and rock useful for infrastructure, construction, and clean fill
  • Clay can be reused in landfill liners and to make cement
  • Up to 100% of “waste soil” materials can be reused using the right technology
  • Aggregate can be regenerated from excess soil.

Frequently Asked Questions Include:

  • What are the regulatory challenges?
  • What material or contaminates are not acceptable.
  • How does the fee structure work?
  • Dealing with federal regulations for contaminations and archeological sites
  • What are some of the unusual finds during soil regeneration
  • How do you deal with stockpiles of material

Beyond Vancouver Island

GRT’s Nanaimo Plant is Canada’s first resource regeneration facility for IL+ soils, dredge, and slurries.

They also have a Barge-access fill site on the sunshine coast that accepts salty, residential, and commercial clean soils at highly competitive rates as part of a mine site reclamation project.

GRT is growing and looking for new locations to set up resource regeneration facilities and allow more sites to meet their environmental goals.

Be Part Of The Solution

As environmental and social impact criteria become standard a requirement in RFQs, construction companies need to look for cost-effective, sustainable solutions.

This is your chance to step up and take the lead in the industry. Look for sustainable alternatives to landfill disposal of reusable aggregate.

  • Use a dirt exchange system like Fill Connect
  • Contact GRT to learn more about soil regeneration and how you can use it on your projects.

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Presented by:
Claire Lewis, P.Eng.
Director, Client Relations at GRT
GRT is a Vancouver Island-based cleantech company that regenerates aggregate resources from excess soils.
https://www.grtenv.com/

Hosted by:
Mana Arabi, P.Eng.
CEO & Co-founder, Fill Connect Inc.
Fill Connect is a dirt exchange platform that encourages the reuse of excavated and dredged material.
https://fillconnect.com

Moderated by:
Hwayda Kater
Managing Director, Magnas Media Inc.
Magnas Media is a design agency specializing in strategic communication design projects, like pitch decks, sales presentations, websites, and supporting marketing collateral that can help you communicate and magnify your value in the marketplace.
https://magnasmedia.com/

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