Burning garbage debate set for city council

City Council is getting set to debate a motion Wednesday that could see staff look at technologies like incineration as a way to reduce garbage in landfill.

Councillors Allan Hubley and David Brown will present a motion asking staff to look at what technologies "are available and in active operation" for diverting waste from landfills which meet or exceed current applicable environmental regulations and requirements.

"Let's look at our waste strategy, what we are going to do to handle garbage in the future, let's look at all the options on the table and give council a report this fall on what they are," says Hubley. "What can be implemented right away? What is promising, coming up the pipeline that should be considered?"

City staff have recommended that Ottawa move to a bag and tag "pay as you throw" model. Each household would be given 55 tags a year and would need to pay $3 for extra tags. The Environmental and Climate Change Committee is set to debate the motion on June 5, with council giving the final vote on June 14.

But Hubley's motion asks staff to look at other options. The motion recommends the city give preference to potential solutions that could provide heat and electricity that could be used to make housing more affordable for our residents.

Hubley points to other municipalities in the province that use technologies to divert garbage into landfill.

"There are several incinerators in operation in Ontario, so that is a possible option because it exists today. We could do that if we wanted. We need to get all the facts," he says.

"I am not opposed to having multiple solutions at play. We are the tech capital of Canada; if we can help companies develop new technologies that is going to handle the garbage of the future, then we should be all in."

The regional municipalities of York and Durham own a waste-to-energy facility. The Durham York Energy Centre processes up to 140,000 tonnes of garbage from the two municipalities each year and generates enough electricity to power the equivalent of 10,000 homes for one year, according to its website. It took nearly a decade and just under $300 million to build. It opened in 2016.

Anything Ottawa builds would likely cost more.

The idea of incineration is raising concerns from environmental advocates, who say that even if it's done in a clean way, it still has an effect on climate.

Duncan Bury is a co-founder of Waste Watch Ottawa and says, "Regardless of the technology, we have a solid waste master plan that we have been working on for years… we need to finish that process."

Bury says moving to an incinerator model is "premature," when the focus should be first to reduce the amount of garbage each household throws out.

"If we get to the point where we do waste diversion and composting… there won't really be anything left to burn anyways and if we did burn it, it would cost a gargantuan amount to do that to the point it wouldn't make any sense to do it at all," Bury says.

"The city has declared a climate emergency, we have a zero-waste vision commitment; any kind of residuals that focuses on incineration, which this motion seems to focus on, violates both of those in a very major way."

The city did launch a high-energy waste plant run by Plasco under then-major Larry O'Brien. The 20-year agreement would have seen Plasco divert waste through a process called plasma gasification. The plan fell through in 2015.

Currently, Ottawa residents throw out approximate 317,000 tonnes of garbage a year. The city of Ottawa's current landfill on Trail Road is expected to reach capacity in the next 13 to 15 years, and staff have said siting and developing a new landfill could cost up to $450 million and take up to 15 years to become fully operational.

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Josh Pringle.