South Fraser Perimeter Road Townhall

Opposing Garbage Incineration a “No Brainer”

People around the world are looking for meaningful things they can do to stop climate change and its source. Carbon intensive energy production is the low hanging fruit for those seeking to make a difference. People are fighting to shut down coal fired power plants in China, the USA, England and elsewhere because it is traditionally seen as the dirtiest form of energy production. What most people in BC don’t know is that there is a plan to burn a fuel source even worse than coal right here in our province, its garbage. The plan to build new “Waste to Energy” incinerators would be a big step in the wrong direction. According to the US Environmental Protection agency waste incineration releases 1355 g of carbon per KWH vs. 1020 g per KWH for a coal fired power plant. To put that in perspective natural gas creates 515 g per KWH. Clearly our garbage is not ideal for making electricity. So given BC’s reputation as a leader on addressing climate change then why then is this issue even up for discussion?

Well first of all nobody likes garbage. Landfills are unattractive and they have environmental consequences of there own. The organic material in landfills decompose overtime and release methane which is very potent green house gas. When you compare emissions per tonne of garbage from landfilling vs. incineration it can give the impression that incineration actually results in less emissions but if you take a closer look its easy to see that this is false. First of all it is the organic material such as food waste that creates emissions in landfills not the plastics and other fossil fuel derived materials. If we simply banned organics from landfills we could virtually eliminate emissions these emissions. The same is not true for incinerators. Incinerators create emissions both from organic material and fossil fuel based material. Therefore incinerators actually create a whole new source of emissions from burning plastics. Meanwhile even if less garbage was going into landfills today we still need to deal with the methane being released from landfills from all the decomposing waste left there over the decades. Any reduction in methane wouldn’t take place for years and years either by banning organics from landfills and composting it or putting it in an incinerator. Clearly composting is the better way to go because of climate change and because it helps maintain soil fertility which is so important to our food security and long term viability of our farmland in the region.

The total emissions generated by burning garbage if the Metro Vancouver plan is allowed to go ahead would be approximately 1 million tonnes of CO2 a year. That would make it the largest source of CO2 in the lower mainland and the 2nd biggest source of emissions in the province overall.

It is very important that we all let our elected official at all levels of government know that this is just not acceptable. A good place to start would be writing to directors on the board of Metro Vancouver and letting them know that you don’t want them to go ahead with this plan. To do this simply send your email to waste.incinerators@writewild.net and it will be forwarded to all of them on your behalf. Also you could visit http://wildernesscommittee.org/write_wild_waste_incinerators or www.ZeroWasteBC.org for more information and for opportunities to take action. Time is of the essence. They will vote on this proposed plan at a meeting next Friday April the 9th 2010.

Together we can find sensible solutions that reduce waste, create jobs and are climate responsible.

Thanks,
Ben West | Communications Coordinator; Healthy Communities Campaigner