WHATEVER ELSE MIGHT BE SAID, incinerating solid wastes using state-of-the-art techniques at a plant that’s not close to urban neighbourhoods must be seen as vastly preferable to just dumping garbage in landfill sites. Yet Durham Region’s Energy from Waste (EFW) plan is encountering all sorts of opposition from those who see it as posing potential health hazards.

Interestingly, Durham’s plans and Dufferin’s are remarkably similar, albeit apparently involving somewhat different technologies and a different supplier.

Here, Alter NRG says the proposed Westinghouse thermal technology gasification plant at the Dufferin EcoEnergy Park (once the proposed site of a county landfill) could handle 100,000 tonnes of garbage as feedstock annually — more than the county currently generates.

And, if AlterNRG and the county can negotiate 12 cents a kilowatt hour under the Ontario Power Authority’s Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program for electricity, a plant that could be as small as 70,000 tonnes would be able to handle garbage for $80 a tonne.

However, for the project to make any sense, the four municipalities that have their own dumps must agree to close them and have their wastes diverted to the plant — something that makes a lot of sense but may require provincial legislation.

Centralizing management of the waste stream of Dufferin was first recommended in the Gartner Lee Report of Oct. 23, 2002, and historically, EFW was discussed by the county almost 20 years ago. Thermal technology has been on the table for about five years and the concept of thermal treatment was proposed in April 2005 by Anthony Humble and Peter Turrell of Synxx Zero Waste.

The generator at the DEEP plant, based on a 70,000-tonne plant, would generate about 2,000 kilowatts of electricity.

Meanwhile, Durham’s planned incinerator has a green light from the region’s medical officer of health has given it a green light; it meets provincial environmental regulations; and modern incinerators of this type, which turn waste into energy, are safely used across Europe and even in Peel region. But none of that has placated opponents of the plan for the facility who favour continuing to the wastes to a landfill in the U.S.

The critics of incineration argue that the better option is to produce less waste and reuse and recycle more. They are right, but realistically there will still be a need to deal with what we don’t reuse or recycle.

As we see it, a well-run, modern incinerator can meet all provincial health, environmental and safety standards. (In Durham, the region went a step further and promised the facility would meet the more stringent European emission standards.)

Let’s just hope Dufferin County Council moves quickly to finally end the need to export our garbage to Michigan.