The Province is removing Richmond’s Ecowaste landfill from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), allowing the company to move forward with a new recycling facility for housing construction waste.

This removal will enable Ecowaste to continue to play an important role in the region’s construction waste-disposal and recycling program.

Ecowaste plans to build a new, modern facility to recycle 65% of the waste it receives. This will support a sustainable circular economy that reduces waste and creates economic opportunity for British Columbians. The landfill's footprint will not increase.

The site was originally harvested for peat in the 1940s and has been used as an industrial landfill, primarily for construction and demolition waste, with permission from the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC), since the 1980s. The site has no history of soil-based agriculture.

Ecowaste must build and operate the new recycling facility before Jan. 1, 2029. Ecowaste can now extend operations until 2055, preventing it from having to begin shutdown procedures this year, and providing long-term certainty to both the company and the sectors that depend on it.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, which will continue to oversee and authorize the landfill under the Environmental Management Act, as well as the ALC, have been consulted and agree with the decision to remove the land from the ALR.

Quick Facts:

• Ecowaste has operated in Richmond since 1971 and is one of three municipal solid waste landfills in the Lower Mainland.
• Ecowaste is a Canadian-owned company that operates a 61-hectare landfill for the disposal and recycling of 320,000 tonnes of construction, demolition and excavation materials annually.
• The removal of the industrial landfill from the ALR was completed by government through an order-in-council: https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/content/oic/?xsl=/templates/browse.xsl