Lou Sekora on Garbage Incinerator for Metro Vancouver

On the weekend I had a chance to chat with Coquitlam city Councillor Lou Sekora about the Metro Vancouver plan to build a $500 million garbage incinerator. Councillor Sekora is opposed to the plan to build an incinerator for a number of reasons.

First off, he asks where is Metro Vancouver going to come up with $500 million for the construction costs. Then he added that it is always cheaper to use a landfill. When I pressed the fact that the garbage will be burned and used to generate electricity, he scoffed at that idea. He told me that electricity is so cheap to produce in BC that a garbage incinerator cannot even come close to the price of hydro-electric power.

Further, he said that if you have an incinerator that converts waste to electricity there is then absolutely no incentive for the region to encourage any of the three R’s: recycling, reducing and reusing. Instead of simply continuing to dump garbage in a landfill, Sekora said that we should be diverting it from landfills. He said there is no need for lawn clippings and organic waste to go to the landfill. Those things can be composted and turned into top soil and sold for a profit. In fact, he told me that many communities that have built incinerators are forced to “purchase” garbage from communities as far as 200 km away. The incinerator requires the fuel in order to feed the machine.

And then there was the issue of the impact of an incinerator on the Fraser Valley air quality. Not good.

Obviously Councillor Sekora is opposed to the idea of a garbage incinerator for Metro Vancouver.