The garbage cell at the region's landfill, SWAMP, hasn't grown in nearly half a year.

It's thanks to the acquisition of a new, much heavier compactor, more than twice the weight of the old equipment.

SWAMP Board Chair Hank Hildebrand explains the machine will essentially add another year to the current landfill cell as it further squeezes out air bubbles and compacts the material.

"We're very pleased with it," he says.

The new compactor is 110,000 lbs, compared to the old 50,000 lbs tractor.

For the past year, SWAMP has also been recycling mattresses, adding to the facility's efficiency.

Instead of being buried, the tangle of stuffing, metal, and wood will be shipped to Winnipeg to be stripped and its core components reused. Hildebrand notes mattresses can become a nightmare in a landfill; they often become tangled in the cleats of compactors which takes hours to untangle.

In the past 12 months, the mattress recycling program has received nearly 600 mattresses.

Mattresses often become tangled in the cleats of compactors which takes hours to untangle