Metro Vancouver is about to commit $3 billion dollars1 to operate as many as six garbage incinerators in our region. That’s one within view of just about everybody’s backyard.
The project is well underway. Last spring the Metro Board approved a quarter-billion dollar borrowing bylaw for “waste-to-energy” facilities2. Metro has begun assembling land for waste management purposes, including expropriation of the former Canfor industrial site in New Westminster3.
The plan will require approval from the province and formal sign-off from each of the region’s municipal councils. But judging by the politicians’ record to-date, they could rubber-stamp it without any discussion or dissent.
Politicians seem to be assuming that the public is on board with this plan, even though there is evidence to the contrary (see “Public Comments” at bottom of page).
Like other municipal politicians, Marvin Hunt, Chair of the regional Waste Management Committee, seems to think the question is about what kind of incinerators to build, rather than whether to go down this road at all. As recently as last June, Hunt told the CBC: “concerns are premature because the committee hasn’t decided on the exact type of waste-to-energy plants it wants to build.”5 There are lots of technologies under consideration: plasma-arc, gasification, pyrolysis, as well as old-fashioned mass-burn incinerators like the one presently operating in Burnaby.
But Metro’s intent is clear, underscored in a public statement by Hunt reported in the Abbotsford News on September 29 2008: “Metro Vancouver is committed to the waste-to-energy (incineration) option.”6
Zero Waste Vancouver thinks it’s time for the politicians to test their positions on waste incineration in the polls. We will canvass candidates in the 2008 civic elections and ask them to state publicly where they stand on Metro Vancouver’s proposal to build waste burning facilities, and we will publicize their responses.
As for Zero Waste Vancouver, we are very clear on where we stand. For many reasons outlined in this backgrounder we think this plan would be a terrible mistake for our region.
Not only would it expose the people within and beyond our borders to unacceptable risks – health, financial, and environmental – it would also be a “dead-end detour on the road to Zero Waste.”7
Our region has been a leader in waste reduction, but there are significant future gains still to be made that are both possible and necessary if we are to become a sustainable society. Metro’s incinerators would send us back to the dustbin of history, when we need to be building healthy communities for the 21st Century.
1Strategy for Updating the Solid Waste Management Plan, Metro Vancouver, February 2008 (Revised March 15th, 2008), Figure 9 (cited October 6, 2008)
2Metro Vancouver Board, April 25, 2008
3New West Record, April 18, 2008 (cited October 3, 2008)
5June 24, 2008: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/06/24/bc-waste-to-energy-metro-vancouver.html?ref=rss (cited October 3, 2008)
6“Penner says Valley will be consulted on incinerators” Abbotsford News, September 29, 2008
7These were the words of award-winning environmentalist Elaine Golds, speaking against the proposed Plasco gasification plant in Port Moody.