City of Ottawa aims to slash woodwaste landfill fees by 30% after commissioning Ottawa Cedar Lumber to process 2,000 tonnes/year of emerald ash borer-infested trees into boards, wood pellets

Wendy Lisney

LOS ANGELES , September 26, 2012 (Industry Intelligence Inc.) – Canada’s capital city has awarded a contract to Cumberland, Ontario-based Ottawa Cedar Lumber Inc. to handle trees infected with emerald ash borer, CBC News reported on Sept. 25.

Sending the infected wood to the family-owned sawmill could reduce Ottawa’s wood waste landfill fees by 30%, according to Councilor Maria McRae.

Ottawa Cedar Lumber’s owner Luc Laplante said he expects the city to send two thousand tonnes of infected ash wood annually. The mill will convert as much of the wood as possible into boards and process the rest into wood pellets for heating. Bark will be shipped to co-generation plants in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Laplante added.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s guidelines for infected ash wood stipulate it must either be ground or chipped into chips with a diameter of less than 2.5 cm in any two directions. Wood by-products such as paper or OSB must also be processed in a manner that removes the emerald ash borer.

Laplante said he was not worried about the emerald ash borer spreading from wood sent to his plant, because quickly grinding up the wood eradicates the beetle.

The primary source of this article is CBC News, Toronto, Ontario, on Sept. 25, 2012.

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