Lafarge planning to open contaminated-soil processing facility in Burnaby​on March 13, 2025 at 7:26 pm

Lafarge Canada is planning to open a soil-washing facility in Burnaby this summer that could treat all of Metro Vancouver’s contaminated soil.

According to a statement on LinkedIn from a Lafarge senior vice-president, Lincoln Kyne, it would divert large volumes of contaminated soils currently being sent to landfills.

It will be on a large lot owned by Lafarge in the 7500-block of Barnet Road, opposite the Harry Jerome Sports Centre.

The company is the largest supplier of aggregates and cement in B.C.

“This facility is a game-changer for soil management,” Kyne wrote. 

The facility will also process so-called bottom ash, a waste product from Metro’s incinerator plant in Burnaby. Once processed, the bottom ash will be used at Lafarge’s Richmond cement plant.

The Metro facility was built in 1988 and burns 240,000 tonnes of garbage a year — roughly a quarter of Metro’s annual output of a million tonnes of garbage. The rest goes to the Vancouver landfill in Delta, which opened in 1966 and is now half full.

The incinerator, with its red-striped smoke stack, creates energy that is sold to B.C. Hydro and also extracts 5,000 tonnes a year of valuable metals.

Kyne said the soil processing plant could help Metro solve the significant challenges in its 2020 ash management plan by processing ash that is currently being sent to landfills.

According to the City of Burnaby, preliminary planning approval has been granted for the facility and the associated building permit was applied for on March 6. An internal review of the project is now underway. As there is no rezoning required for the development, a report wasn’t brought to city council.

“Through the building permit process, the applicant will be required to comply with Burnaby’s environmental bylaws. Metro Vancouver bylaws and provincial environmental regulations must also be met,” a city spokesperson said.

Lafarge Canada didn’t respond to a request for comment.

dcarrigg@postmedia.com