Families provide incineration ‘solution’

Did you know that your family is living on the cusp of a looming garbage crisis? Nearly all of Durham Region’s 100,000 tonnes of waste is trucked to Michigan, where it’s dumped into massive landfills. But in 2010, those landfills will no longer accept Ontario’s garbage.

Despite much opposition from residents and medical experts concerned about health, environmental and financial repercussions, the Durham and York Regions voted in June to build a $230 million incinerator in Clarington near Lake Ontario. Construction is slated to begin in 2010, and be completed by 2013. It will cost about $14 million a year to operate.

Advances in technology have improved the amount of toxic emissions from incinerating garbage. But local community activists like Linda Glasser believe incineration puts citizens at risk for serious health problems. “I live 25 kilometres away from the proposed site, so this is not a NIMBY issue for me or any of us. This incinerator shouldn’t be built anywhere,” says Gasser, the anti-incineration campaign coordinator for Prevent Cancer Now. “It’s known that children, infants and the unborn are most at risk, and so many young families are moving into this area.”

Health Canada has reported that incinerators emit hundreds of pollutants, including carcinogens, to air, land and water, and are the largest source of dioxins, which cause skin disease, liver problems and immune and reproductive system abnormalities, which could affect children’s’ development.

“This is about the incineration industry trying to re-establish itself. There have been no incinerators built in the U.S. and Canada in over a decade; we’re ground zero in Canada, and there’s only one other major project (in North America),” adds Gasser, who lives near Orono. “I have never seen so many people from across the region commit to an issue as they have to this. There’s a municipal election

in November 2010. People are telling councillors, ‘If you vote for this incinerator, we’re going to make sure that you don’t get re-elected.’”

Gasser says proponents of incineration are billing it as an ‘energy from waste’ facility, but incinerators “are, in effect, very expensive producers of very dirty energy. Incinerators lock up municipal resources for 25 years or more, and channel all those resources to incineration. It’s also a very inflexible waste management option, because you’ve got to guarantee a supply of waste, and you’ve got to be able to predict the volumes very far into the future. What will the region not be able to afford once they’re tied to incineration?”

Many activists across the country want to focus instead on the ‘zero waste’ concept, which looks at why so much waste is being generated in the first place, and addresses it at the source.

Shawn Williamson, a Brooklin resident and the father of a five-year-old daughter, says striving for zero waste is a great way to get the whole family involved in helping to protect the environment. Williamson has been composting all his life, and has more than 30 different recycling bins set up around his house. “I am a big proponent of zero waste and love to show people that it is actually easier, cheaper and more fun than the way most people are living at present,” says Williamson, who blogs about his family’s zero waste progress at http://baleengroupnewsandstuff.blogspot.com/. “We have achieved 99.3% waste materials diversion and it is pretty easy to do. Schlepping three bags to the curb every two weeks is not fun. One bag every eight months is more fun - take it from me!”

Williamson, a partner in Baleen Group, which does environmental consulting, is also a board member of Durham Sustain Ability. His family buys in bulk and does its own backyard composting. Here are his top tips for families striving for zero waste:

• Reduce. There’s less to throw out if you buy less, and think of the money you save.
• Composting at home is good fun for kids, awesome for lawns and gardens.
• Convert your garbage cans into recycling bins.
• Separate at source. Put a recycling bin in your bathroom for tissue (compost), shampoo bottles (recycle), etc.
• Set goals. Williamson plans to put out only 1.6 bags this year and 1 in 2010.
• Good design. Re-organize your kitchen, laundry room, garage, etc so it is easier to handle your materials.
• Take your own containers when you order take out food.
• Teach your kids and get them involved: share the work, share the fun.
• Donate used stuff to charities

Wendy Helfenbaum is a writer and television producer at http://www.taketwoproductions.ca.

Check out these websites for more information about incineration
http://www.ecomed.org.uk/content/IncineratorReport_v2.pdf
http://preventcancernow.ca/main/issues-actions/stop-incineration/the-facts