View - The Municipality of Lambton Shores

City Trash Talk: Vancouver's Plans To Turn Garbage Into Power
A proposed $400 million Metro Vancouver facility
to convert garbage to electricity could reverse recent
gains in waste reduction, say critics
Canadians, it turns out, are really good at creating
garbage. A recent Conference Board of Canada
report revealed Canada tops 17 other developed
countries in the per-capita amount of trash produced.
In the Lower Mainland, BC, they contribute to this
gross domestic product to the tune of one million
tonnes of garbage annually. It's Metro Vancouver's
job to figure out what to do with it all.
The regional district plans to stop landfilling
garbage and, in 2018, open a new $400 million
waste-to-energy plant that would generate electricity
– and profit – from trash.
But with attitudes toward garbage changing, Metro
Vancouver has already had to modify its plan. When
garbage production dropped in 2011, the size of the
planned facility was reduced to 370,000 tonnes from 500,000 tonnes. The regional
district will now have to redo its business plan to take the change into account.
The region currently landfills 700,000 tonnes and sends another 300,000 to a garbage
incinerator in Burnaby. An ambitious goal to reduce, recycle and compost 80% of what is
thrown away by 2020 will still leave at least 370,000 tonnes to deal.
Metro Vancouver's garbage incinerator in south Burnaby burns 240,000 tonnes of
garbage each year and produces enough electricity to power 17,000 homes.
Waste-to-energy plants make money in three ways:
•tipping fees
•steam and electricity sales; and
•metals recovery.
But although the Burnaby plant performs efficiently, it doesn't make money. In 2011, the
facility generated $10 million in revenue but cost $18 million to run.
In contrast, the proposed new facility is projected to generate net revenue of $20 million
over 35 years of operation. The numbers are based on the original plan for a 500,000
tonne mass-burn incinerator.
Owners of waste-to-energy facilities can apply to B.C.'s Ministry of Energy to have the
electricity they produce designated as clean energy and be eligible to be bought at a
higher rate by BC Hydro.
Under the terms of the 20-year deal, the city will truck 109,500 tonnes of garbage
13