Metro dumps plan for big waste-to-energy incinerator

Volume of trash is decreasing and no longer justifies new facility

Metro Vancouver has halted plans to build another incinerator to burn the region’s waste, blaming the delay on uncertainty around future garbage volumes and turning to the Vancouver dump to fill the gap.

Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore, Metro’s board chairman, said while Metro remains committed to waste-to-energy over landfills, it worries there won’t be enough garbage to feed a proposed 250,000-tonne plant.

“Over the past five years, we’ve seen the amount of residuals ... decrease every year,” Moore said. “No doubt there is going to be residuals, but how much? That’s the question we have to wrap our heads around. … We don’t want to build a facility that’s too big.”

Metro was continuing to negotiate land options until recently, when concerns resurfaced over dwindling garbage levels. The region has repeatedly reduced the capacity of a proposed plant, from 500,000 tonnes to 250,000 tonnes, as garbage volumes dropped with more people embracing recycling and putting out organics for composting.

Our vision from Day 1 was to increase diversion and reduce the total amount of waste and we wouldn’t have the volumes to justify a halfbillion-dollar incinerator.

ANDREA REIMER VANCOUVER COUNCILLOR

It’s a huge about-turn for the regional district, which has spent $4.5 million since 2012 investigating waste-to-energy garbage disposal. Directors had pledged to release a short list of potential sites before Christmas and build as many as three waste-to-energy plants in or outside the region by 2018.

Metro directors say the problem is twofold: an increase in recycling has led to higher diversion rates at the region’s dumps; and the B.C. government’s rejection of Bylaw 280, which would have kept local garbage in the region, has meant commercial haulers are still taking Metro’s garbage to dumps elsewhere, particularly to Washington State via Abbotsford.

Metro directors agreed it would be fairer to the proponents to stop the process while they crunch the numbers to determine the size and location of a future facility, Brodie said. Private companies that pitched their sites and technology for potential waste-to-energy plants have been told the process has stalled but may come back later.

Metro is expected to produce a report in 2016, but Moore said it could be several years before the region needs the extra capacity.

The proposed waste- toenergy facility, estimated to cost $500 million, was expected to take garbage that now goes to the Cache Creek landfill, slated to close at the end of next year. However, the dump, which previously received 500,000 tonnes of garbage a year, now gets less than 200,000, Moore said.

Metro should be able to deal with the excess waste at the Vancouver landfill in Delta, which receives only half its licensed volume of 650,000 tonnes, he said, and the Burnaby incinerator, which accepts 280,000 tonnes per year.

Metro did plan to scale back the 25-year-old Burnaby plant once the new waste-to-energy plant was on stream, but says it will now spend $30 million during the next five years on improved capacity, technology and further emission control upgrades.

Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer said the region can now look at more sustainable options, such as more materials-recovery facilities. Vancouver has long opposed the plan, saying the region’s ambitious diversion targets would leave little for incineration. Metro aims to divert 80 per cent of waste from landfills by 2020, and now sits at about 62 per cent.

“Our vision from Day 1 was to increase diversion and reduce the total amount of waste and we wouldn’t have the volumes to justify a half-billion-dollar incinerator,” Reimer said. “This is a win.”