by Betty Zaikow Should Powell River import and incinerate Vancouver’s garbage? Definitely not. This was the consensus of more than 100 people who attended a meeting on June 27, hosted by Malaspina Sierra Club. Speaker Mark Biagi, marine biologist, gave a riveting account of how garbage incineration turns non-hazardous waste into hazardous waste. The community will be flooded by nanoparticles containing carcinogens such as furans, dioxins and heavy metals. These particles, produced and released from garbage incinerators, are persistent and will poison our children, continuing to damage their health for years to come.
This will happen if City of Powell River mayor and council support a proposal from Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. and Urbaser SA that will see our city turned into a major destination for Lower Mainland garbage. A 500,000-tonne-per-year garbage incinerator would be built. Burning four tonnes of non-hazardous waste will create one tonne of hazardous waste. And how much hazardous waste would 500,000 tonnes produce? You do the math. Now, where would this 100,000-plus tonnes a year of hazardous waste be land filled? How many trips will “Ashley” have to make up the hill each day?
Waste-to-energy is a fancy and misleading name for garbage incineration. These facilities are a massive waste of energy and Biagi has all the figures to prove this. Adopting a zero-waste strategy will save four times more energy than burning it. Ninety per cent of our waste stream can be reused, recycled or composted.
Incineration actually creates a demand for “waste.” Incineration needs paper and plastic to burn. Taking out organics alone will reduce 50 per cent of our garbage, and Powell River Regional District is working on that now by looking at an in-vessel composting system. Vancouver certainly should be doing the same.
We are fortunate to have biologists and professionals such as Biagi in our town to educate us on the other side of incineration. The side big business wants to cover up includes the fact that poisonous chemicals will be spewed into the air; these chemicals are bio-accumulative; they will harm our health and hurt our children and grandchildren for decades to come; that this proposal will create a few jobs, but many more will be lost. Gone will be jobs in tourism. Would doctors move their children into such an environment? No clean industry would want to establish here under these conditions either.
If we become known as the garbage incinerator for the Lower Mainland, would we ever receive the Cultural Capital of Canada designation as we did a few years ago? Let us build on being the Cultural Capital of Canada again. We have so much to offer: clean air, clean water, whales and dolphins passing by, world-class trails, canoe route, beaches, beautiful sunsets, vibrant art culture, authors, open air markets, organic farms, National Historic District and amazing music events like Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific and International Choral Kathaumixw. We just hosted the BC Bike Race and Pulling Together Canoe Journey. These are all qualities that attract good industry, which we do need.
Let us build on a clean, green economy; it is in our Community Charter. Please see Biagi on Facebook and also his presentation and it will inspire you to think of all the things we can do besides burning garbage.
Betty Zaikow is a resident of Powell River and chair of Malaspina Sierra Club.
