Trash is big business and a big burden on taxpayers, and there could be major changes coming in how Metro Vancouver handles its waste.
Ben West with the wilderness committee says the region is "above the Canadian average" when it comes to producing garbage. It costs Metro Vancouver taxpayers $360 million to handle that haul, after what's removed for recycling.
Part of the heap is burned at a Burnaby incinerator, some goes to a landfill in Delta, and about 30 per cent is trucked for four hours out of town to Cache Creek. But the Cache Creek landfill is quickly nearing capacity, and politicians have until the summer to decide how the region will handle its trash in the future.
Cache Creek Mayor John Ranta wants to see the local landfill expanded because of its contribution to the local economy.
"It's become the single biggest employer in the local area, it employs about 120 people," Ranta said.
Crews are already preparing an extension of the landfill that could handle garbage until 2012, and there's room to expand even further – but Metro Vancouver staff don't want to keep sending garbage there.
Cost is one issue; opposition from some First Nations is another. Les Edmonds, an elder in the Ashcroft Indian band located 10 kilometres south of the landfill, says he's worried about toxic liquid or leachate seeping out of the landfill and into the groundwater.
‘They're going to have to do something else with their garbage," he said. "It's already too late, the stuff that's in there now is going to be there for thousands and thousands of years."
Some in the band only let their children drink bottled water. Ray Cameron says when his son Matthew drinks tap water he gets stomach aches and diarrhea.
The Ministry of Environment told CTV that leachate has escaped into the groudnwater near the landfill, but that the quality still falls within provincial guidelines.
Despite that, Metro Vancouver staff say investing incinerators that can turn waste into energy saves money and is better for the environment. The move would dramatically affect Cache Creek, however, and Ranta says the town is "on pins and needles" awaiting the call.
There are plenty of Liberal insiders and supporters on both sides of the garbage industry, including VP of Belkorp, the company that owns the Cache Creek landfill, is former finance minister Gary Collins.
In the past five years, Belkorp has donated $100,000 to the Liberal party.
On Tuesday, CTV will take a closer look at the waste incinerator that has been operating in Burnaby, and reveal why Metro Vancouver staff say turning waste to energy is the way of the future.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Mi-Jung Lee
