Ottawa to study incineration as a solution to its garbage problem

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A decade after the City of Ottawa’s disastrous foray with Plasco Energy Group, city council is again exploring a trash-to-energy plan as a solution to its garbage problem.

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Council voted unanimously Wednesday in favour of a motion from Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley to explore new technologies to divert garbage from the increasingly packed Trail Road landfill, including incineration.

Some councillors made clear they oppose burning trash — Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper called the increased greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from an incinerator “existential threats” — but Hubley stressed his motion is meant only to ensure the city explores every option when it comes to dealing with its garbage.

“What we are asking is for staff to provide more information about all the options,” Hubley said. “We’re not zeroing in on incineration. We’re asking staff to give us more information so we can make an informed choice.”

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The information is to come back to council next fall when councillors receive for debate the city’s Solid Waste Management Plan. The plan is expected to be approved early in 2024.

The city is already looking at ways to extend the life of the landfill, including a controversial “bag tag” program that would limit the number of garbage bags residents can put out for collection, charging fees for extra bags. But that’s a short-sighted solution, said Orléan East-Cumberland Coun. Matthew Luloff.

“We need to stop fooling ourselves,” Luloff said. “This is an issue that’s going to catch up with us and we’ve been avoiding it for 12 years. Bringing in a new and expensive program that’s going to extend the life of the landfill for a few years is really not a progressive policy, nor is it acceptable to most residents.”

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Charging for excess garbage would “disproportionately punish larger families and poorer families,” Luloff said.

Luloff rhymed off a list of cities that successfully convert waste to energy, either through incineration or other means: Brampton; Durham; Ft. Myers, Florida; Newark, New Jersey; Vienna, Austria; and Malmo, Sweden.

“There’s loads of examples out there,” he said.

Ottawa’s Trail Road landfill is expected to be full as soon as 2036 and council will have to decide soon what to do about it, said Alain Gonthier, the city’s director of public works.

“When we look at the time span required to even consider those options, we’re looking at 10 or 15 years from the time that we start feasibilities until the time that they’re running,” Gonthier told reporters after the meeting. “Some key decisions will have to be made.”

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But Ottawa’s past experience in producing energy from waste is tainted. In 2006, Ottawa businessman and former Ottawa Senators owner Rod Bryden’s Plasco Energy Group built a $27 million test plant at Trail Road to produce energy from waste through a process called “plasma gasification.” The project was plagued with technical and financial problems, but eventually, the city and Plasco signed a $180-million, 20-year agreement in which Plasco would process nearly 110,000 tonnes of city waste annually.

But the trouble continued and Plasco repeatedly failed to prove to the city that it had secured all the financing it needed to go ahead. In 2014, Bryden resigned from the board and by 2015 Plasco had fallen into bankruptcy.

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Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who wrote about Bryden and Plasco as a business columnist for the Ottawa Citizen, said he’s aware of the risks.

“I know there are concerns. There are pros and cons to every potential solution and every form of technology,” Sutcliffe said. “With Plasco, it’s a shame that that didn’t work out. It didn’t turn out to be a great deal for the City of Ottawa but it was only one scenario. I’m sure there are lots of different options and a lot of time has passed.

“I think have to look at what the best options are, what people are doing in other communities and choose that option that’s right for Ottawa.”