The City of Surrey has issued a Request for Qualifications (RFP) for its new organics biofuel facility, moving it one step closer to realizing the project.

The facility will process residential and commercial kitchen and yard waste into a renewable fuel, which will be used to power the city’s new waste trucks.

The 80,000 metric tonne per year facility will be the largest of its kind in Canada, and will help the City and Metro Vancouver achieve the regional 70 per cent waste diversion target by 2015.

Surrey’s new Rethink Waste program was launched Oct. 1, 2012, and includes curbside organics collection and an entire fleet of compressed natural gas waste collection trucks. The new program has already led to a 43 per cent reduction in garbage sent to landfill. Once the biofuel facility is operating, the B.C. community will be home to the only fully-integrated organics waste management system in North America.

The RFQ is the first stage in the competitive selection process that invites teams to submit responses indicating their interest in and qualifications for the project. The submission deadline is 11:00 a.m. PST on July 18.

Upon receipt of submissions, the City will identify a shortlist of up to three teams that will be invited to submit proposals to design, build, partially finance and maintain the new facility. The City expects to engage a successful proponent in early 2014, and commence development of the biofuel facility immediately thereafter.

The estimated construction cost is $65 million, which will be refined once the contract has been awarded.