Metro Waste Review Opens Energy Debate
Posted April 15th, 2008
Every year, Metro Vancouver residents and businesses generate 440 billion litres of liquid waste and 3.6 million tonnes of garbage and recyclables. And that's where the story stops.
However, if you lived in Stockholm, Sweden, this is what managing your waste would look like. One of your many sewage treatment plants would treat both sewage and kitchen waste producing biogas for fifty buses, rising to two hundred in a few years. The plant would have a business development manager who sells biogas from the plant, as well as providing cooking fuel for the nearby community of Hammarby Sjöstad. Energy recovered from sewage by heat pumps would provide heat and hot water for a total of 80,000 homes . The energy and material would loop between the plant and the community mimicking nature's closed cycles.
An approach to managing waste that is based on integrated resource management and built on the idea of smaller distributed plants rather than a few large ones is happening in other communities around the world, protecting the environment and providing a sustainable source of energy. The question is whether we're ready to bring that thinking here to Vancouver and the rest of the Lower Mainland.
Metro Vancouver is now reviewing its current plans for liquid and solid waste management and is holding the first in a series of consultation sessions in the coming weeks to hear what concerned citizens have to say. For organizations like the Georgia Strait Alliance, this is a unique opportunity to ensure changes made in the coming years are the best for the region in the long term. In particular, as the region looks to upgrade the North Shore's Lions Gate and Richmond's Iona plants, critics say we need to ensure the systems selected not only protect our local waters but also give back through generating resources such as heat and biofuels.
To get information about attending one of the consultation sessions, please click here to visit the Metro Vancouver web site.
Every year, Metro Vancouver residents and businesses generate 440 billion litres of liquid waste and 3.6 million tonnes of garbage and recyclables. And that's where the story stops. However, if you lived in Stockholm, Sweden, this is what managing your waste would look like. One of your many sewage treatment plants would treat both sewage and kitchen waste producing biogas for fifty buses, rising to two hundred in a few years. The plant would have a business development manager who sells biogas from the plant, as well as providing cooking fuel for the nearby community of Hammarby Sjöstad. Energy recovered from sewage by heat pumps would provide heat and hot water for a total of 80,000 homes . The energy and material would loop between the plant and the community mimicking nature's closed cycles.
An approach to managing waste that is based on integrated resource management and built on the idea of smaller distributed plants rather than a few large ones is happening in other communities around the world, protecting the environment and providing a sustainable source of energy. The question is whether we're ready to bring that thinking here to Vancouver and the rest of the Lower Mainland.
Metro Vancouver is now reviewing its current plans for liquid and solid waste management and is holding the first in a series of consultation sessions in the coming weeks to hear what concerned citizens have to say. For organizations like the Georgia Strait Alliance, this is a unique opportunity to ensure changes made in the coming years are the best for the region in the long term. In particular, as the region looks to upgrade the North Shore's Lions Gate and Richmond's Iona plants, critics say we need to ensure the systems selected not only protect our local waters but also give back through generating resources such as heat and biofuels.
To get information about attending one of the consultation sessions, please click here to visit the Metro Vancouver web site.