Burn, baby, burn
Canada is an exporter of garbage. The Toronto area alone in 2004 produced "more than half of the 3.4 million tonnes of garbage shipped stateside from Ontario," notes a recent editorial in
Canadian Business (about half-way down the page). Our own landfills are pretty much full, and "we need to come up with a comprehensive plan that addresses all aspects of waste management -- collection, recycling, composting, transfer and disposal. That plan should include incineration. Yes, incineration."
Not the toxic smoke belching furnaces of old, but energy-producing sci-fi stoves of the future. That run on "
plasma-gasification, which heats garbage until it breaks down. Because it does that without using oxygen, nothing gets burned in the process." Ottawa-based
Plasco Energy Group Inc. has a pilot project ready to go, just waiting on the Ontario government for an okay after getting a municipal thumbs-up (and a federal seal of approval via a $6.6 million grant from
Sustainable Development Technology Canada).
The plan is to process 75 tonnes of garbage a day, produce electricity for 3,600 homes, and use the "glass-like solid" left at the bottom in construction. Could it be true? Is it okay to love this?