| In Alberta’s capital city a new $90 million plant will turn garbage into electricity while Calgary lags far behind in the battle to reduce waste and avoid filling its landfills. The Edmonton plant, which will be completed in 2010, will take waste that can’t be recycled or composted and use it as a raw material in a thermochemical process that will produce gas that can then be used to produce electricity or even fuels such as ethanol.
With garbage you bury it, burn it, recycle it, or compost it," says Connie Boyce, spokeswoman for the City of Edmonton’s waste management service. Boyce explains that Edmonton already has comprehensive composting and recycling facilities at its Waste Management Centre, and processing garbage in these ways is a vital step before introducing leading-edge technology such as the gasification plant now being built.
We’re processing municipal waste," she says. "Edmonton is aiming to divert up to 90 per cent of its waste away from landfills. Calgary is still sending its waste to landfills." And Boyce is correct. Edmonton currently diverts 60 per cent of its garbage away from landfills. In Calgary the city estimates only 20 per cent of the total garbage produced is being diverted away from local landfills. A fact not lost on George VanderBurg, acting Innovation and Science Minister in the Alberta government who was at the news conference announcing the province’s $29 million contribution to the cost of constructing the Edmonton plant.
Edmonton is miles ahead of Calgary on this issue," he said. Calgary needs to step up to the plate."
Calgary’s administration is on record that it wants to divert 80 per cent of the city’s waste away from landfills by the year 2020. To do that most experts agree a comprehensive recycling and composting program will first need to be implemented.
Calgary currently relies on citizens to take recyclable materials to depots that have been strategically placed throughout the city. In 2004 the City of Calgary also launched a pilot program to test curbside recycling. Introduced in the communities of Cedarbrae, Mount Pleasant and Huntington Hills, the program used carts that allowed members of participating households to separate their garbage into recyclable and organic materials. When the program wrapped up this year a final report was prepared by Waste and Recycling Services which states that participation in the pilot project was solid. Seventy-two per cent of area households participated in the organics collection program while 66 per cent participated in paper collection and 53 per cent in the container collection.
Although the program was deemed a success and in October city council voted to support its implementation in 2009, officials maintain there’s no money to fund the plan. Dave Griffiths, director of the city’s waste and recycling department recently told members of the utilities and environment committee that Calgary needs to consider introducing user fees in order to launch a citywide recycling program.
Griffiths indicated that user fees, estimated to be $15 per month or more, could cover the cost of the program. To date no final decision has been made with the City of Calgary now seeking bids from private companies interested in operating Calgary’s curbside recycling program.
Back in the provincial capital the celebrations continue with the City of Edmonton recently announcing that it’s formed a partnership with the City of Chengdu in China to evaluate that city’s waste management system.
"Edmonton is a global leader in waste management, and the solutions we’ve found in our community can be applied to other cities around the world," said Stephen Mendel, Edmonton’s mayor. |
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