An aerial photo of the Peace Regional Waste Management Company. Photo courtesy Alberta Government.

By Erika Rolling

Provincial Funding

PRWMC getting $5 million grant to address overflowing landfills

Aug 22, 2025 | 11:50 AM

The provincial government says they are investing $10 million in two industry-funded Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction program pilot projects.

These projects are located in Cardston and Peace River, to treat wastewater more efficiently and turning waster into clean energy.

The Peace River Waste Management Company is splitting the funding with the Town of Cardston, each receiving $5 million.

In Peace River, the money will be used to address what the province says are “overflowing municipal landfills.”

Officials say PRWMC will be able to expand it’s technology that turns landfill garbage in carbon-negative power, which in turn will cut waste by 85 per cent, reduce disposal costs by 25 per cent, and lower landfill methane emissions by more than 22 million tonnes.

The province says turning this pilot project into a full-on capital project will help create jobs, support 24-hour operations at the landfill, and enable the technology being used in Peace River to be shared with other communities in Alberta and beyond that are also facing waste disposal challenges.

General Manager of PRWMC, Art Sawatzky said in a government news release; “With this financial support from the Government of Alberta through ERA, we are accelerating our mission to be leaders in environmentally responsible waste management services and systems. Every year, millions of tonnes of waste are buried in Alberta’s landfills, resulting in long-term generation of environmentally damaging carbon and methane emissions. There is an incredible amount of latent energy in the waste material we discard. This project enables us to meet our sustainability goals by diverting 80 per cent of the waste materials from the landfill through a facility which recovers and converts the energy into heat and electricity. At the same time, this process will eliminate the waste’s overall capacity to generate emissions.”

The Alberta government says the combined value of the projects are nearly $41 million dollars and funding is being delivered through the ERA’s (Emission Reduction Alberta) Continuous Intake Program.