For the past two years or more, I have been reading the articles and letters to the editor about the garbage and wastewater disposal issue in Greater Victoria. We read that our landfill is bursting with refuse and hardly anybody, except perhaps those who can make money building it, wants the proposed wastewater disposal system. The proposal, in my opinion, is way behind the needs of our 21st-century city.
Why have municipal officials not made a decision to study the up-to-date garbage disposal system in Sweden?
According to the November 2014 issue of the Monitor of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, less than one per cent of household garbage in Sweden ends up in landfills. “The Scandinavian country has become so good at managing waste, they have to import garbage from the U.K., Italy, Norway and Ireland to feed the country’s 32 waste-to-energy plants, a practice that has been going on for years,” says the article.
The article doesn’t specifically mention liquid waste. It is, however, well known that it is possible to use the components of such waste to produce energy. Surely, using garbage and other kinds of waste for producing energy, Victoria could solve both its problems of a lack of landfill and an unacceptable raw-sewage treatment plant.
Ralferd C. Freytag
Victoria
