August 28, 2006

Halton Region eyes waste-to-energy plant

TORONTO

Halton Region plans to build a plant that could potentially take 70 per cent of the Toronto-area’s garbage and turn it into electricity.

The waste-to-energy facility would use incineration or other thermal technologies to turn trash to ash and cash for the region to the west of Toronto.

Choices range from a $250 million facility to meet Halton’s waste-management needs until 2050, to a $500 million to $700 million plant that could accept waste from neighbouring cities. The plant would be located at the region’s landfill site in Milton.

The aim is to have a plant up and running by 2009, said Halton’s chair Joyce Savoline.

A large plant would go a long way to easing the Toronto-area’s looming garbage crisis. Toronto uses 100 trucks a day to haul garbage to landfills in Michigan — amounting to 850,000 tonnes a year.

Halton’s big-plant proposal would mean Toronto or other municipalities could use the facility, but at a price. According to one estimate, the fees could generate about $45 million in annual revenue for Halton.

The plant would also reduce pollution by cutting trucking needs, and the energy from such an operation, processing up to 1.2 million tonnes a year of waste, would provide power for 60,000 homes, Savoline said.

The Halton-only option would handle all residential garbage now going into the landfill and industrial-commercial garbage that’s being shipped to Michigan. In the process, it would generate electricity for 18,000 homes.

Regional staff have begun studying the options for the proposal and are to report back in the spring.

CANADIAN PRESS

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