Metro Vancouver revealed four potential sites for new waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities at a Zero Waste Committee meeting November 21.
Nine companies have submitted a total of 10 WTE proposals for the development of the facilities. The technologies being considered include gasification, refuse-derived fuel and mass-burn incineration.
There is an existing WTE facility located in Burnaby, but Metro Vancouver said it requires additional capacity to deal with 370,000 more tones of municipal waste.
Metro Vancouver hasn’t confirmed whether all proposals are viable, other than the four it revealed November 21. The proposed locations, along with their proponent companies, that have been made public are:
- Plenary Group, 9001 Heather Street, Vancouver;
- Lehigh Cement, 7753 Berg Road, Delta;
- Wheelabrator Technologies and Urbraser, Jackson Road, Nanaimo; and
- Aquilini Renewable Energy, Squamish Nation, Port Mellon.
“Three years ago, community leaders on Metro Vancouver’s Board approved a regional plan which makes waste reduction, reuse and recycling our first priority,” said Zero Waste Committee board chair Greg Moore.
“But even when we achieve our goal of recycling or composting 80% of the solid waste generated by residents and businesses in our region, we will still have to dispose of 700,000 tonnes of garbage or municipal solid waste per year.
“That’s a lot of waste – enough to fill Rogers Arena twice over.”
Moore explained that WTE technologies are intended to turn this solid waste into renewable energy, as well as recover any materials that can be recycled, such as metals.
Mayor Gregor Robertson said this is the first the City of Vancouver has heard about the proposed site at 9001 Heather Street in Vancouver.
“City Council has made it clear since 2011 that we do not support the mass burning of garbage,” Robertson said. “Furthermore, any site for this kind of facility would require extensive review by staff as well as development permit approval.”
In October, Marc Lee, senior economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, spoke out against incineration in the Lower Mainland, saying it doesn’t solve the region’s waste-disposal problems.
“Burning garbage does not make waste go away; it merely transforms it,” Lee said in October. “Some goes into the air as particulate, including toxic compounds (dioxins and furans), as well as greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide).
“The rest becomes ash residue, which can be anywhere from 22-45% of the original tonnage of waste burned.”
Lee said a true Zero Waste plan would be more focused on recycling and creating incentives for reusable packaging and containers, but that it was beyond Metro Vancouver’s scope and the provincial government would have to be involved.
