Beehives at City landfill buzzing on success

By Lethbridge Herald on March 19, 2025.

Steve Rozee, processing manager for the City’s Waste & Environment department, poses next to some of the beehives that will soon be a buzz of activity heading into the spring season. Herald photo by Scott Sakatch

Sam Leishman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Lethbridge’s Waste and Recycling Centre still has plenty to buzz about six years after undertaking a beekeeping initiative.

ECCO Recycling, the company that operates the city’s Material Recovery Facility (MRF) that processes recycled items, started beekeeping in other communities around southern Alberta that it manages facilities in before bringing the project here to Lethbridge. Ten hives were added to the landfill property north of the city in 2019.

Expert beekeeper, Mauricio Bianchi, joined ECCO in 2022. He explains that the landfill is a peaceful home for bees, with easy access to plenty of clean water, native flowers and crops suitable for honey production.

Bianchi says he continues to be pleased with this initiative year after year.

“While beekeeping has seasons of abundance and growth, there are also seasons of low production and a reduction in the number of hives, but this is the normality of beekeeping,” Bianchi told the Herald. “Nothing is more comforting for a beekeeper than watching their hives grow, arriving for visits, seeing the color of the wax and perceiving the aromas of the nectar collected.”

Bianchi has helped expand the apiary at the Lethbridge landfill over the years. There are now between 15 and 22 hives during the spring and summer months when the bees are most actively producing. The smallest hives are then merged together during the fall so the bees have the best chance of surviving the winter.

Bianchi says the Lethbridge hives alone have managed to produce approximately 3,800 pounds of honey since 2019.

ECCO and the City of Lethbridge split the liquid gold evenly. Last year, the City’s share of what is now known as Blue Sky Honey came out to more than 300 small jars and 24 large jars, most of which was donated to local food banks to pass along to community members in need.

While their honey is a treasured resource, Bianchi says bees are a vital part of the ecosystem.

“Bees are the planet’s main pollinator, a fundamental part of seed production. Without them, food production and the survival of vegetation would be almost impossible. Our contribution is to breed and maintain thousands of bees that provide pollination services to the native and productive flora within a three kilometre radius.”

ECCO initially committed to managing Lethbridge’s beehives for a minimum of five years, and the company has no plans to stop any time soon.