Mayor Gregor Robertson on Waste Management

Mayor Gregor Robertson wrote a guest column for the Province newspaper this morning. Here is an excerpt of that guest column. Also, to read the rest of Mayor Gregor’s guest column, you can visit the Province paper.

A single waste to energy facility is proposed to deal with our garbage.

Mass incineration, the most common form, burns raw garbage and converts it into energy. However, it is a one-size-fits-all model — one large, $440-million facility that will burn up to a billion pounds of trash each year.

We can do better.

By separating materials and using smaller, more targeted technologies like converting fast-food wrappers into fuel or organic waste into biofuels, we can use our waste to create energy in a more financially and environmentally responsible way.

Let’s use the best practices from cities as diverse as Los Angeles and Copenhagen and pursue new conversion technologies to deal with our waste, rather than committing to one massive incinerator that takes away any incentive to reduce or recycle for decades to come.

This approach will create more jobs and flexibility. Metro Vancouver can excel as a centre for innovation and expertise on sustainable waste management where cutting-edge technology and research companies can set up and thrive.

Everyone agrees waste reduction needs to be the top priority.

A plan based on reduction, recycling, innovation and local jobs would also allow us to avoid the divisive battles we’ve seen over incinerators between Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

Sending our garbage out of region, one of the proposed compromises, only exports and expands this division.

Visit the Province paper to read the rest of Mayor Gregor’s column.