Although composting facilities in Canada are in short supply, and one in Peel Region was recently shut down over odours, Dufferin County's Green Bin program has thus far been unaffected.

A Toronto Star story Sunday said a facility in Caledon had been closed. In an interview Tuesday, Dufferin Public Works Director Trevor Lewis said the facility referred to is in the former Chinquacousy township, and is not the one Dufferin uses at a landfill site west of Caledon Village.

Peel, he said, has three facilities: one in Brampton and the two in Caledon. The closed one is a secondary treatment installation for source separated organics that go first to Brampton.

The Caledon facility Dufferin uses is a fully containerized and computerized Herehof system created nearly two decades ago.

At one time, it was the preferred system for Dufferin but county council couldn't agree on the type of composting that would be most appropriate for the 200-acre county-owned site at Highway 89 and the Amaranth-East Luther Townline.

There are said to be no odour problems at the Caledon landfill site from the Herehof system.

Now, with the county on notice that it could be shut out of Caledon at any time, the county is on the threshold of getting its own facility in partnership with York Region but a Request for Proposals (RFP) is still in the drafting stage.

Dufferin had previously obtained responses to its request for qualifications, and had selected a preferred supplier for a facility, but York found some unspecified problems with that choice and has now taken over the selection task.

At York, Neil McDonald heads the team drafting the RFP.

He said they're trying to complete it as quickly as possible - and that the team would consult with Dufferin prior to issuing the RFP.

York, he said, now transports its organic wastes to facilities at Welland and St. Thomas. It had previously hauled to a facility in Quebec but has stopped using that one.

York Region says it is just as anxious as Dufferin to have a composter closer to home.