Waste-management infrastructure represents a significant regional investment, so it disconcerting that the Times Colonist would publish a one-sided perspective (“Toxic ash, garbage odours a concern for critic,” June 20) on the role of energy-from-waste as a solution for one of our most daunting public-policy challenges.
In fact, energy-from-waste is a proven process for the safe disposal of post-recycled municipal solid waste and the generation of clean, renewable energy. These sophisticated, efficient power plants operate with state-of-the-art air-emissions-control systems run by experienced professionals certified and regulated by relevant state agencies and provincial authorities.
Around the world, about 800 plants provide sustainable, reliable, economical solid-waste services to municipalities with no adverse health or environmental impacts.
Stringent emission-control systems meet or exceed all regulatory requirements wherever they operate.
Modern energy-from-waste facilities offer proven net benefits in terms of greenhouse gases. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for every tonne of trash processed in an energy-from-waste plant, nearly one tonne less of carbon dioxide equivalent is released into the air due to avoided methane from landfill disposal, fossil-fuel power generation and metals production.
Further greenhouse-gas reductions are realized by avoiding long-haul transportation of waste to distant landfills, as well as avoiding the methane produced in the landfill through decomposition.
Energy-from-waste plants record thousands of data every second of the day to ensure that plant inputs and outputs are kept within clearly defined operating parameters established by government regulators.
Energy-from-waste reduces waste volumes by 90 per cent, resulting in an ash residue that passes the most rigorous testing to ensure it is non-hazardous. The ash can be used beneficially in a variety of applications, including landfill roadbed material, landfill daily cover, road aggregate, asphalt mixture, and even in the construction of artificial reefs and cement blocks.
Energy-from-waste plants employ the most advanced air-emissions-control equipment available, including acid-gas scrubbers, fabric filters to control particulate matter, an advanced nitrogen-oxide-removal system and carbon-injection systems to control any trace amounts of mercury, as well as dioxins and furans.
Studies indicate that modern energy-from-waste facilities do not adversely affect the health of communities in which they are located. Site-specific risk assessments show that emissions are well within, or lower than, the guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state environmental agencies for protection of public health.
Industries seeking new locations for expansions frequently list reliable waste-management infrastructure and a source of renewable energy as priority site-selection criteria.
Energy-from-waste facilities provide long-term price certainty for the sustainable management of post-recycled waste and are a key investment in community infrastructure. Generally, the costs of converting trash into energy are competitive with other disposal options, when all the long-term disposal systems benefits are calculated.
A Danish study concludes that “technology development for incineration has played a key role in lowering the global-warming potential during the past five decades.” And a Spanish study concludes that exposure to dioxins or furans is not related to proximity to an energy-from-waste plant, but is mainly due to other sources such as diet, which is widely accepted as the major pathway for human dioxin exposure.
Moreover, the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change identifies energy-from-waste as a key greenhouse-gas mitigation technology.
The World Economic Forum, in its 2009 Davos Report, identified energy-from-waste as one of eight technologies likely to make a significant contribution for a future low carbon global energy future. The 2010 Davos Report reiterated those findings, but also included a recommendation to follow the European Union’s model and increase energy-from-waste by phasing out the use of landfills.
John Foden is executive director of the Toronto-based Canadian Energy-From-Waste Coalition.
