Red Deer County is hoping the company WastAway has the know-how to divert more of its garbage from the landfill.

This morning, council authorized staff to begin negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding with WastAway to explore a waste-to-energy program.

Andrew Treu is the county’s environmental services manager. He says WastAway collects municipal garbage, removes inert materials like metals, rocks, glass and ceramics. The material is then shredded and dried, producing a carbon-based substance called Fluff, which is compacted into pellet form.

Treu says the county is always seeking a greener option than trucking as much as 25,000 tonnes per year to the landfill, located 200 km away.

“It’s a considerable cost to transfer all that garbage to a landfill,” he says. “If there’s anything we can do that’s smarter with our garbage, we’re looking for any opportunities.”

He adds that there's much work ahead before the idea turns into an actual project. Anything related to cost would return for council approval.

The motion received unanimous support from council.