Plasco dragon slain ~ but more on the way

Congratulations to the citizens of Port Moody ~ democracy is alive and well.

Through the dog-days of summer, hundreds of citizens showed up night after night and made an irrefutable case against Plasco Energy Group's dioxin factory.

Listening to arguments from citizen heroes like JoAnne Parneta, Elaine Golds and dozens of other well-informed speakers, the City's task force had no choice but to recommend that Council not pursue the foolish plan to let Plasco gasify hundreds of thousands of tonnes of garbage in their city.

But the work has just begun.

"Waste-to-energy" is still is still lurking like a cancer at the heart of Metro Vancouver's mendacious "Zero Waste Challenge."

Need evidence?

Next week Metro's Waste Management Committee will consider a budget that allocates over $33 million dollars in 2009 on direct expenditures for incineration. (For comparison, the amount they are allocating for "solid waste demand reduction" -- measures to work with the community to make less waste in the first place: $939,159.)

The incineration expenditures will include not only building new incinerators, but ongoing costly upgrades to the existing facility in Burnaby.

One of the "Operational Priorities" in the budget is inspection and overhaul of WtEF turbo-generator." The turbine was installed only 5 years ago at a cost of $36 million and it already needs an "overhaul"??

Build incinerators and you just keep spending good money after bad.

Zero Waste Vancouver has been silent for a while because we are gearing up for a campaign to make these incinerators an election issue in the civic election campaign. Not a single elected official has made a peep against the plan to spend $3 billion on garbage burners. Most of them, I am betting, don't even know it's in the works.

Watch for our launch at the Metro Waste Management Committee meeting next week, where we'll be joining JoAnne and Elaine and their delegation from Port Moody. We will be issuing a 4-page backgrounder that lays out an alternative plan of action for Metro and our communities. And while you're waiting for the campaign to start, sign our petition to Choose Zero Waste over Incinerators.

Pic: Deliberative Democracy Handbook

Speak out ~ landfill gas regulation not good enough

Here's a good place to start our campaign to stop methane pollution: tell the province that end-of-pipe solutions are not good enough.

The provincial government is seeking input on a proposed Landfill Gas regulation that would require local governments to install gas capture systems. Problem is: these systems miss most of the gas produced by rotting garbage. More than half the gas slips by the pipes and up to the atmosphere.

A much better approach, chosen by the provincial government of Nova Scotia, is the preventative approach. They simply banned organic wastes from being disposed in landfills. They did this back in 1999. Within months the province's waste had been cut by nearly half (to say nothing of the decline in methane).

In Nova Scotia everyone puts their food waste in Green Bins. Even Tim Horton's provides a special container for half-eaten donuts and coffee cups.

Why stop with half-way measures? Tell our province to follow Nova Scotia's example and use a carrot-and-stick approach to help local communities prevent the methane problem.

Go here for the feedback form (due by September 30). Go here for background info.

BC politicians think we want to burn garbage!

When the times get tough ~ and they will! ~ everyone is going to be looking for cheap alternatives to the fossil fuels that have powered our economy in the past 150 years. And sooner or later they will seize on GARBAGE as the cheap energy resource of the future.

It's already started. And Sweden is the role model.

A few years ago the chair of the Metro Vancouver Environment Committee, Joe Trasolini, toured Sweden and today he is pushing for a form of waste-to-energy alchemy called "gasification."

Metro Vancouver intends to issue a request for proposals early in the New Year to build huge huge new incinerators that will burn up to 3/4 million tonnes of waste each year (for comparison, our region's Burnaby incinerator burns 285,000 tonnes per year).

Last month, BC's energy minister Richard Neufeld came back from Sweden smitten with that country's energy plants that burn wood waste along with municipal waste. This minister comes from a northern riding that is drowning in wood waste like we're drowning in garbage. He's sure to see this as the perfect way to turn a problem into a solution.

Except, of course, that the last thing responsible political leaders should be promoting now is dumping our waste into the atmosphere. Please read the Zero Waste Vancouver backgrounder on waste incineration, and send a quick email to Trasolini and Neufeld:

Joe Trasolini, Chair

Metro Vancouver Environment Committee

joe.trasolini@cityofportmoody.com

Richard Neufeld, MLA

Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources

richard.neufeld.mla@leg.bc.ca

The wasteful pay less in Vancouver!

The Vancouver Solid Waste Utility charges us for garbage based on how much we put out, right?

Wrong.

It turns out, the more you waste the better a rate you get.

The city lets you choose between five garbage can sizes, ranging from 75 litres to 360 litres. The problem is that the rates don’t go up at the same pace as the volume.

If you choose a “small” can, you pay $1 per litre of garbage. If you choose the HUMONGOUS 360 litre container, you pay only 44 cents per litre of garbage.

Is this any way to encourage waste reduction???

Tell Vancouver City Council to fix the garbage rates in 2008. They'll be discussing the 2008 rates on Thursday, November 29th, at their City Services & Budget committee meeting.

Saturday, Sept. 29 - The Day to STOP Gateway!

Local groups and citizens preferring rail and busses to more highways will be out in force this Saturday at two Gateway-related events, with a mass bike ride between them!

The first event is The Spirit of Sustainability at the Unitarian Church in Vancouver (949 West 49th at Fremlin, just east of Oak), starting at 3pm. There will be some truly excellent speakers, displays and entertainment.

Then at 5pm, outside the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Coal Harbor, there is Hello Al, Goodbye Gateway, a rally to welcome Mr. Gore to Vancouver and to demand action on climate change, with more great speakers and entertainment. Bring your banners and prepare to make some noise!

Bridging the two events, for anyone on a bike, is a mass ride from the The Spirit of Sustainability Rally to Hello Al, Goodbye Gateway Rally! Meet at 5:00pm at the Unitarian Church, by the bike parking. The ride leader is Stan Jang stan.jang[at]gmail.com.

Can you feel the groundswell of opposition against Gateway?

Zero Waste Vancouver’s anti-Gateway flyer can be downloaded here – feel free to print up some copies and distribute them at Saturdays’ anti-Gateway festivities.

See you there!