Garbage, Garbage All Around

This is going to revolve around garbage. Piles and piles of it. So much garbage that by 2010 we are going to run out of places to cram it. Right now it goes to a landfill in Delta, another in the Interior, and some of it gets incinerated in Burnaby in one of three 'Waste To Energy' facilities in Canada.

The debate about what to do after 2010 is either to send the garbage down to the US for 5 years until we can build more of the plants like the one in Burnaby, or to find another place in BC until that time.

The Environment Minister and others are behind keeping it in BC, while the Sewage and Drainage Board, that govern the garbage services of Greater Vancouver, (I know, I didn't know that either) wants to ship it down South at a cost of $200 million over those 5 years.

Nothing has been proposed to keep it in BC, but Environment Minister Barry Penner says they will be studying proposals to see if there are any options to keep it in-province rather than ship it out.

I'm kind of on the fence. I can see why it would be harmful, as the US doesn't have near the Environmental policies existing in this country, and also the emissions from the tonnes of garbage (Literal tonnes, 1.5 million every year, CTV) know no borders, and their contribution to climate change could be lessened if they were under our laws and controls.

It would only be for a period of five years, until there is one of those Waste To Energy plants are built, reportedly in Surrey, and at a reported cost of almost $1 billion.

We don't know how much the Canadian alternative will cost, as it's not even in place, but if it is significantly more, then there will be a choice to make.

The debate isn't the facility, that's already in the works, but what to do with the 7.5 tonnes of garbage in the 5 years it will take to build it.