Laflèche Environmental provides innovative waste disposal solutions today and is building a sustainable legacy for tomorrow with its objective of 60% waste diversion from landfill.

Laflèche Environmental is one of Eastern Ontario's most innovative waste management companies. The Laflèche Environmental BioReactor is a cleantech landfill site that converts wastes to energy and re-usable organic material in a series of in-ground cells. The BioReactor is expected to help serve the ever-growing demand in Eastern Ontario for waste diversion over the next 100 years or more.

In 1987, André Laflèche, founder of  Laflèche Environmental, bought 500 acres of land in Moose Creek, Ontario – 46 minutes from downtown Ottawa – the site of his future waste diversion facility. By 1997, with the vital expertise of a qualified team, he established Laflèche Environmental.

Municipalities and companies spend millions of dollars to start new landfill sites that often don't make it past the study stage. Yet Laflèche Environmental received its provincial certificate of approval in 1999, construction began in 2000 and the Laflèche Environmental BioReactor received its first shipment of waste in January 2001. The BioReactor is one of only a few landfills in the Ottawa area.

The inspired 25-person team at Laflèche Environmental believes that new technologies, including soil recycling and composting, allow for less negative environmental impact than existing waste disposal systems. Soil Recycling, for example, generates up to 150,000 tonnes of clean and nutrient rich soil for reuse on agricultural, residential and industrial properties, eliminating hydrocarbon contaminants.

Another Laflèche innovation, created in cooperation with Moose Creek Tire Recycling and Eco-Tire Recovery, is the use of recycled tires in the construction of the BioReactor leachate drainage system, allowing Laflèche Environmental to reduce by 50% the use of aggregate. Laflèche Environmental is committed to better pollution management, recycling methods and a cleaner environment. 

Why Ottawa

André Laflèche is convinced that Ontario's demography and consumer habits require an innovative waste diversion facility one that employs environmentally sustainable and economically durable waste management practices from around the world.

The City of Ottawa collects 319,000 tonnes of residential waste each year, diverts 34% of it and dumps the rest in landfills, but there's huge opposition to expanding existing landfill sites. The Laflèche BioReactor has no foreseen maximum capacity and expects to serve eastern Ottawa for a hundred years or more.  When André Laflèche chose his site, he knew it was the perfect location – close to Highway 417 (the arterial road running east-west across Ottawa).

Laflèche Environmental believes economic development and community development go hand in hand. The company contributes $1 per ton of waste accepted at its site to the Township of North Stormont, at the edge of Ottawa. This money becomes part of the township's general revenue, to be spent at its discretion. Laflèche is also currently financing studies and working to mutual benefit with four separate Canadian universities to expand the boundaries of environmental science and practice. 

Business Advantage

Organizations spend millions each month trying to find new waste-handling solutions for the province of Ontario. André
Laflèche’s suggested solution, in addition to soil recycling and composting, is to bring some of Ontario's trash to his sit.

The methane gas produced at his landfill can run a turbine and generate power to sell on the Ontario grid. After a cell or section of the Laflèche BioReactor is filled with waste, it is covered with a soil cap. Methane gas collects under this cap as the waste decomposes. The Laflèche BioReactor speeds up the process of garbage decomposition into methane gas by circulating leachate water through its cells. In this way, the BioReactor accelerates decomposition of waste – breaking down waste nearly three times as quickly than in a traditional landfill.

Over its lifetime, the Laflèche BioReactor will produce 10 MGW, enough methane to power 1000 homes for more than 50 years. In addition to its environmental value, the Laflèche BioReactor is a huge economic asset for the Ottawa region.

Laflèche Environmental works in association with Moose Creek Tire Recycling and Eco-Tire Recovery. Moose Creek Tire Recycling recycles Trensept recycles scrap tires and produces shredded rubber chips for civil engineering applications. Licensed by the Ministry of the Environment, Trensept Laflèche processes 3.5 million tires annually – more than one quarter of all scrap tires generated in Ontario each year. Trensept is the largest processing facility in the province. Laflèche Environmental is approved to use scrap tires as an alternative to traditional stone in the leachate drainage system design at the Laflèche Environmental BioReactor.

Together with dealers, haulers, and municipalities, both Laflèche companies strive to provide cost-effective alternatives to illegal dumping, stockpiling, and the trans-border disposal of tires.

Future growth plans

Laflèche Environmental‘s vision for a cleaner future includes building a Mass Composting Facility, expected to be completed summer 2008. In addition,  Laflèche Environmental will be building special digesters to transform farm and septic waste into fertilizer. The company plans to increase heat and carbon dioxide capture at the Laflèche BioReactor and generate electricity from the methane gas produced at the site. The long-term plan includes erecting energy efficient greenhouses and growing food on-site. Managing the cycle of waste diversion and decomposition will put waste to work for a hundred years or more.

The Laflèche Environmental Trust, with a planned $1.5 million, will be a key contributor to the acquisition for conservation of Wetlands, such as the Alfred Bog, the highest-quality bog ecosystem in south Ontario.

Contact Information

Laflèche Environmental, Inc.
(613) 538-2776
www.laflecheenvironmental.com