Learn and Live leaves NOTL to tour Walker's Environmental Division

The organizers of Learn and Live are not recycling last year’s topics, however, they have added a part two to the popular recycling presentation called Where Your Green Bin Goes that was offered in the fall.

“It was such a positive vibe after the session and everybody there said ‘yes, I'd like to have a tour and actually see what happens to my organics,’” said Terry Mactaggart, an organizer of the popular Learn and Live series offered through the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library.

Darren Fry, project manager of Walker Industries Environmental Division, and presenter of part one, will take registrants on a one-and-a-half hour bus tour of the Walker Resources Management Campus in Niagara Falls.

“We’ll see first-hand what happens to our organic waste,” said Mactaggart.

Participants are encouraged to carpool to the Niagara Falls site, where a bus will be waiting to take them to tour the plant.

First stop will be the compost site, where green bin materials are turned into compost, followed by a visit to the Resource Recovery Facility, where waste materials are transformed into innovative new products like low-carbon alternative fuels.

The tour will include the South Landfill, a state-of-the-art, engineered landfill that safely manages Niagara’s waste before ending at their Landfill Gas-to-Energy Facility, where methane from the landfill is used to create electricity, renewable natural gas and helps to power the nearby General Motors Glendale plant.

Registration is limited to 30 participants due to bus seating. Register at Niagarapubliclibrary.org under the events page. The tour is Monday, May 13 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.