“Construction digs up vast amounts of contaminated soil. GRT Resource Regeneration found a low-carbon way to transform it for new uses.”

What an honour it was to welcome Government of British Columbia Minister Brenda Bailey and Minister Sheila Malcolmson on a tour of our Resource Regeneration Facility, after GRT received a substantial financial contribution from the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund.

Since 2015, the Ecostar Awards have recognized outstanding environmental achievements and leadership on Vancouver Island. The awards are presented to Vancouver Island-based businesses, non-profits, academia, governments and individuals who have demonstrated exceptional environmental and social initiatives.

“In a world grappling with the challenges of climate change and dwindling resources, the concept of resource regeneration offers a promising pathway towards a sustainable future. Rather than depleting our finite resources, regeneration focuses on replenishing and restoring them. It embodies the principles of sustainability, resilience, and long-term thinking. “

It's tough to imagine a world where dependable aggregate supply is more than a 'stone's throw' away (pun intended), especially here in the Pacific Northwest. But considered in the global context, and set against the backdrop of rising costs for extraction and transportation... the issue of aggregate sustainability comes a little more into focus.

The new soil relocation rules have come into force in British Columbia. Learn how this affects your soil movement plans and GRT’s receiving status.

Hey there, Vancouver constructors and developers. How far is your dig from a barge ramp? If you're less than a 20 minute drive to a barge ramp, and you're currently trucking your excess soil to the Fraser Valley - Hold up!

Duke Point is turning into a waste-to-resource (W2R) hub! Including GRT, this thin peninsula on the southeast edge of the City of Nanaimo hosts at least six hardcore W2R businesses.

But in spite this, over the last quarter, guess how much legit garbage our entire facility produced? Yep! Only 0.3% of all inputs! That means we diverted 99.7% of the excess soil, sediment, and slurry we received away from the landfills where it would otherwise have been sent.

CDE Group — one of our key technology partners — recently published this case study on GRT highlighting our resource regeneration process!

We’re not talking about football season, we’re talking about (drumroll, please….) DREDGING SEASON! 🤓

GRT applauds the work that the CWMA does to serve the solid waste industry in coastal British Columbia. They publish frequent news digests and organize regular events that focus on information sharing, practical advice, and making connections.

There have been great strides made in C&D waste recycling, concrete and asphalt recycling, and steel recycling through both regulation and changing attitudes, but soil recycling uptake continues to lag. In fact, excess soil may reveal a vital solution to a global concern.

In honour of our first year, we thought we’d have a little bit of fun with some output volume comparisons. Check out the infographic below to wrap your head around just how much material we have regenerated this year from waste soil!

GRT treats salt-contaminated soil and dredge, which is very common in the oceanside region where we operate (even in upland soils below a certain depth). As you can imagine, given its high solubility, salt readily washes off coarse aggregate and into GRT’s water treatment system where we can safely manage it.

Aggregate Resource Regeneration should be the norm in Canada, and yet, there are only a small handful of facilities that enable soil reuse (e.g., GRTs facility is the only soil washing plant in western Canada), with little to no capital funding or grant programs available to support this transformation.

GRT recently produced 200 mt of clean washed gravel and 150 mt of clean washed rock (right side of photo) from a federal contaminated site remediation project. Good news story? Not totally.

Have you ever wandered past a colourful mural with a rendering for a cool new condo development and noticed the huge gaping hole in the ground behind it? Did you ever wonder where all the dirt went after it came out of the hole? 

We’re excited to share that on Tuesday, February 15th, our Director of Client Relations, Claire Lewis will be speaking one of the lunch-hour events, on the topic of (wait for it…) Resource Regeneration on Vancouver Island.

As climate change continues to impact local weather, sod-free city medians and boulevards offer an appealing alternative to traditional designs that rely on regular irrigation.