Solid Waste Management in Metro Vancouver Fifty seven per cent of the solid waste generated by residents, businesses and industries in the Metro Vancouver region is now recycled or composted. This “waste diversion rate” is about twice as high as the Canada-wide average. The rest of our solid waste – about 43 per cent of the total – is disposed, via garbage transfer stations, at the City of Vancouver Landfill in Delta, the Cache Creek Landfill or Metro Vancouver’s existing Waste- to-Energy Facility in Burnaby. Metro Vancouver and its member municipalities are taking actions to reduce waste and achieve even higher recycling and composting rates. In July 2010, Metro Vancouver’s Board of Directors approved a new Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan with four goals: § Minimize waste generation; § Maximize reuse, recycling and material recovery; § Recover energy from the waste stream after material recycling; and § Dispose of all remaining waste in landfill, after material recycling and energy recovery. After a one-year review, the B.C. Ministry of the Environment gave its conditional approval for that long-range plan. Under that plan, communities intend to recycle 70 per cent of our region’s waste by 2015 and will strive to recycle 80 per cent by 2020. These waste diversion rates are among the best achieved in the world. The solid waste plan summarizes waste reduction and recycling initiatives, such as: § Advocate that senior governments progressively move towards the prohibition of the manufacture and distribution of non-essential, non-recyclable products and packaging. § Provide information and education on options to reduce waste. For example, MetroVancouverRecycles is a computer data base that helps residents and businesses find the most convenient locations in the region to donate or recycle just about anything. § New programs, in single-family residences, multi- family residences, and the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors, to divert food scraps and other organics from disposal, to create compost or bio-fuel. § Engagement with stakeholders, such as to increase recycling and composting rates in multi-family and commercial buildings. However, even when we achieve that 80 per cent waste diversion target, there will still be about 700,000 tonnes of garbage. . . stuff that, for one reason or another, cannot be recycled yet. This garbage still has value. Waste-to-Energy technologies turn this garbage into renewable energy and recover metals. Food scraps collected for organics recycling
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Solid Waste Management in Metro Vancouver Fifty seven per cent of the solid waste generated by residents, businesses and industries in the Metro Vancouver region is now recycled or composted.
This “waste diversion rate” is about twice as high as the Canada-wide average.
The rest of our solid waste – about 43 per cent of the total – is disposed, via garbage transfer stations, at the City of Vancouver Landfill in Delta, the Cache Creek Landfill or Metro Vancouver’s existing Waste-to-Energy Facility in Burnaby.
Metro Vancouver and its member municipalities are taking actions to reduce waste and achieve even higher recycling and composting rates.
In July 2010, Metro Vancouver’s Board of Directors approved a new Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan with four goals:
§ Minimize waste generation;
§ Maximize reuse, recycling and material recovery;
§ Recover energy from the waste stream after material recycling; and
§ Dispose of all remaining waste in landfill, after material recycling and energy recovery.
After a one-year review, the B.C. Ministry of the Environment gave its conditional approval for that long-range plan.
Under that plan, communities intend to recycle 70 per cent of our region’s waste by 2015 and will strive
to recycle 80 per cent by 2020. These waste diversion rates are among the best achieved in the world.
The solid waste plan summarizes waste reduction and recycling initiatives, such as:
§ Advocate that senior governments progressively move towards the prohibition of the manufacture and distribution of non-essential, non-recyclable products and packaging.
§ Provide information and education on options to reduce waste. For example, MetroVancouverRecycles is a computer data base that helps residents and businesses find the most convenient locations in the region to donate or recycle just about anything.
§ New programs, in single-family residences, multi-family residences, and the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors, to divert food scraps and other organics from disposal, to create compost or bio-fuel.
§ Engagement with stakeholders, such as to increase recycling and composting rates in multi-family and commercial buildings.
However, even when we achieve that 80 per cent waste diversion target, there will still be about 700,000 tonnes of garbage. . . stuff that, for one reason or another, cannot be recycled yet. This garbage still has value. Waste-to-Energy technologies turn this garbage into renewable energy and recover metals.
Waste to Energy is globally recognized as one of the most cost-effective and environmentally responsible means of dealing with residual wastes that cannot otherwise be diverted from disposal.
Developed nations in the world with high recycling rates – countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium – make extensive use of waste to energy technology to recover energy and resources from garbage. There are more than 600 Waste-to-Energy facilities around the world.
Many independent scientific studies, from academic researchers and health and environment authorities around the world, have concluded that modern, well-managed Waste-to-Energy facilities are safe for human health and the natural environment.
Metro Vancouver has 25 years’ experience in successfully operating its existing Waste-to-Energy Facility, a mass-burn incinerator located in Burnaby, B.C.
Garbage is burned at temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius. The steam from the facility is used to power a turbo generator to create electricity, which is sold to BC Hydro. The electricity from the Waste-to-Energy Facility can power 16,000 homes. This is energy that otherwise would get buried in a landfill. Each year, the facility also recovers about 8,000 tonnes of metal, which gets recycled into reinforcing steel.
In addition to disposing of waste in a safe and energy-efficient manner, the Waste-to-Energy Facility also remains the lowest cost disposal option in the regional solid waste system.
Waste to Energy
Metro Vancouver’s existing Waste-to-Energy Facility opened in 1988 (left) Control room at Metro Vancouver’s Waste-to-Energy Facility in Burnaby (top right) Remote-controlled grapple (bottom right)
In order to protect human health and the environment around the facility and throughout the airshed, the Metro Vancouver Waste-to-Energy Facility uses a modern air pollution control system. This system includes equipment designed to capture a wide range of air pollutants including nitrogen oxides, fine particles, metals, acid gases, and organics including dioxins.
Metro Vancouver’s commitment to continuous operational and environmental improvement has resulted in improved environmental performance over the past 25 years of plant operation. More than $60 million has been spent for environment-related upgrades at the Waste-to-Energy facility over the past 25 years of operation. Systems are in place to provide comprehensive monitoring of the emissions, and these show that most emissions are significantly lower.
Another $30 million in environment-related improvements are planned over the next 10 years. An upgrade of the nitrogen oxide (NOx) reduction system is currently underway and scheduled for completion in early 2014. This project will reduce smog forming emissions by about 60 per cent from present. With this improvement, the facility’s contribution to the Fraser Valley’s smog forming emissions will be even smaller than it is today, dropping from less than one half of one per cent to less than a quarter of one per cent of the emissions that cause smog in the region.
Metro Vancouver remains committed to protecting the environment and human health, and ensuring that the continued operation of the Waste-to-Energy Facility results in no measurable impact to the environment or human health.
Turbogenerator that generates electricity from steam at Metro Vancouver’s Waste-to-Energy Facility (bottom) Connection to BC Hydro power grid (top)
In 1972, the Province of B.C. gave Metro Vancouver the responsibility to manage air quality in the region. Air quality programs are guided by air quality management plans, with the most recent Integrated Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Management Plan adopted by the Metro Vancouver Board in 2011. Management plans and actions are informed by the operation of an extensive air quality monitoring network, and the preparation of regular inventories of all sources of emissions in the airshed.
Today, there are 27 permanent air quality monitoring stations, in locations from Hope to Horseshoe Bay, in the Lower Fraser Valley airshed, In 2013, in partnership with the Fraser Valley Regional District, a new air quality monitoring station was added in Agassiz.
Metro Vancouver also operates a Mobile Air Monitoring Unit – a state-of-the-art monitoring station on wheels – that can measure the impact of emission sources in neighbourhoods. Air quality data is readily accessible to the public, with information about current air quality posted on Metro Vancouver’s website and new web app, called AirMap.
The regional district remains committed to improving the air quality, both within its own boundaries, and throughout our shared airshed, working with the Fraser Valley Regional District and other air quality partner agencies, north and south of the border.
Emissions of smog-forming pollutants are much lower than they were 20 years ago, due to stricter emission regulations and controls, better technology, and cleaner fuels. However, the Caring for the Air report notes that trucks, cars and non-road engines such as bulldozers still account for almost half of the smog-forming pollutants released into the air in Lower Fraser Valley airshed.
Waste management practices contribute a very small proportion of the air contaminants in the Lower Fraser Valley airshed (far less than one per cent for smog-forming pollutants, and less than 0.01% for fine particulate matter, metals and dioxins).
Air quality studies, completed while Metro Vancouver was developing its Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan, compared a number of different options for managing solid waste, including in-region Waste-to-Energy. The studies showed that there was no discernible difference in the air quality between any of the options assessed. And if a Waste-to-Energy facility also provides a source of energy and heat for a district energy system that displaces small and less efficient furnaces which use natural gas or other fuels in a nearby commercial or residential area, the use of garbage to generate energy would result in a net decrease in air emissions in that community.
Caring for the Air
WASTE-TO-ENERGY
INDUSTRIAL SOURCES
NATURAL SOURCES
CHEMICAL PRODUCT USAGE
ROAD VEHICLES
AIR / RAIL / MARINE / OFF-ROAD
ALL OTHER SOURCES
0.39%
10.3%
15.4%
12.7%21.0%
21.5%
18.7%
Whatcom CountyWhatcom County
Metro Vancouver
CANADA USA
Fraser ValleyRegional District
Air Quaility Monitoring Stations in the Lower Fraser Valley Airshed
T14
T33
T26
T31T17
T39
T24
T23T22
T18
T32T20
T13
T30
T15
T27
T45
T12
T29
#20
T2
T2
T1
T6
T4
T9
T35
Lower Fraser Valley emissions sources that cause smog - 2012
In October 2012, Metro Vancouver began a procurement and consultation process to develop additional Waste-to-Energy capacity. All technology options are being considered, for both in-region and out-of-region facilities. In June 2013, Metro Vancouver narrowed the potential WTE technologies to three: mass burn, gasification or refuse-derived fuel. A total of 10 proposals were short listed.
The Request for Proposals for options to purchase or lease land will close on October 15, 2013 with the expectation that potential sites, in and out of the region, will be identified in early 2014.
Metro Vancouver will continue to engage and consult with the public and key stakeholders, including the FVRD. The project will also go through a full provincial environmental assessment and approval process, including a technical assessment of any potential air quality or public health impacts.
If one or more new Waste-to-Energy facilities are approved by Metro Vancouver and subsequently permitted by the B.C. Ministry of the Environment, the design and construction phase will begin in 2016.
Meanwhile, Metro Vancouver continues to work on the waste reduction and recycling initiatives in the Board and BC Government-approved Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan. The regional district is engaging stakeholder groups – such as food retailers, restaurants, multi-family property owners and residents – in advance of a 2015 ban on organics disposal. On October 16, 2013, at this year’s Zero Waste Conference in Vancouver, Metro Vancouver and partners across Canada will launch the National Zero Waste Council.
Developing additional Waste-to-Energy capacity
Lille Halluin Waste-to-Energy Facility, in Halluin, in northeast France.
Bressia Waste-to-Energy Facility at Bressia, in northern Italy, near the Alps.
Crossness Waste-to-Energy Facility near London, United Kingdom.
§ Frequently Asked Questions about Waste to Energy
§ Metro Vancouver’s existing Waste-to-Energy Facility in Burnaby
§ Metro Vancouver’s Development Process for Additional Waste-to-Energy Capacity
Please note the electronic version of this document includes many web links to reports and other resources on the regional district’s website, www.metrovancouver.org
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