Harper Talks Trash

It has come to light recently that Metro Vancouver is moving forward with the expropriation of the Canfor Lands in Sapperton to build a "Waste to Energy" facility. In other words, an incinerator. This is whole heartedly supported by Councillor Bill Harper, who coincidentally took a trip recently to Japan to tour their WTE facility. In response to the future closure of the Cache Creek landfill, Harper stated recently, that loading our garbage on rail cars and sending it to Washington state is "expensive and environmentally irresponsible". And burning it in an incinerator isn't?

The proposed incinerator that Harper supports would be about twice the size of the present WTE facility in Burnaby, which would add about 200 trucks to our already choked roads and truck routes and will ultimately impact our air quality. Metro Vancouver is proposing spending up to 3 billion dollars on these WTE facilities, proposing three, and up to seven, of these incinerators throughout the region. This money, or far less, could be far better spent on investing in recycling, composting, and re-use facilities as well as a curb side green bin program for New Westminster and throughout the region, eliminating the proposed "need" for an incinerator. Programs such as these are already being adopted in cities throughout the country, and North America, with resounding success. Harper is showing his short sightedness and backwards thinking on this issue. There is no such thing as a zero emissions incinerator. "Gasification", as it is becoming popularly known, produces toxic emissions, greenhouse gases, and increased pollution in our air, which contributes to health risks, climate change, and global warming.

It is time that the local, provincial and federal government make industry responsible for it's overuse of packaging, which inevitably becomes the consumer's and the city's problem. The local government needs to ramp up city recycling, which would include single family homes and multi-family housing units, such as townhouses and condominiums. This would also include commercial, such as restaurants and food stores, industrial and institutional facilities, such as hospitals. The province needs to adopt a comprehensive waste reduction policy instead of proposing to spend billions on burning waste, ultimately letting the manufacturers off the hook and polluting our air. It seems that recycling, reducing and reusing are not even an option. Burning our waste only blocks the investment in green waste diversity alternatives and eliminates hundreds of potential jobs in the recycling industry. Burning waste is not recycling, as the proponents of the incinerator would like you to believe. In the end, the federal government needs to introduce regulations on packaging and make industry responsible for the waste it is creating.

Councilman Harper and Mayor Wright, educate yourselves. This issue does not just affect Sapperton and New Westminster. Don't abandon a waste diversion strategy. B.C., Metro Vancouver, and this city are moving in the wrong direction. Don't burn our futures.

Dana Hings

New Westminster resident and director of Voice - New Westminster