Twenty per cent of Metro Vancouver's garbage is burned at the Burnaby waste incinerator and staff feel burning waste and turning it into energy is the way of the future.
Heat and gases from the burning produce steam and electricity which is sold to a nearby business and BC Hydro.
Now, staff are recommending the construction of another incinerator so the region could burn nearly twice as much trash – and put an end to burying garbage in area landfills.
Among notable proponents is Delta Mayor Lois Jackson.
"If we had a waste to energy facility in the Lower Mainland at the end of 35 years, it would be $20 million to our credit," she said.
"That's a major cost factor."
There are several businesses already eager to cash in on the garbage industry.
The Tsawwassen First Nation has a strategic location next to the port and it's been talking with a branch of the Aquilini empire – the family best known for owning the Vancouver Canucks.
"Our community could benefit from job opportunities," Chief Kim Baird told CTV News.
Aquilini Renewable Energy wants to build an incinerator in Tsawwassen that would use the carbon emissions to grow algae and turn that it into bio-fuel.
"It's a very exciting opportunity for the planet and we're very excited about this and we're on the leading edge of it," said John Negrin of Aqulini Renewable Energy. Negrin adds that algae provides the highest source of bio-fuel generation because it doesn't flood crops. The company plans to launch a demonstration project in the Lower Mainland in the next couple of months.
Covanta Energy is also interested. The company is pitching Metro Vancouver on the idea of sending garbage to an incinerator it wants to build in Gold River, a former pulp mill town on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The job starved town, whose main mill closed in 1998, may want it but environmentalists are trashing any suggestion that burning is a green solution.
"Moving toward burning plastics to create energy is a huge step in the wrong direction," said Ben West of Wilderness Committee.
"This is like having a less dangerous landmine."
West is especially concerned about the tiniest particles that get through the smokestack scrubbers, also known as nano particles. He's worried that burning plastics and heavy metals will just send a toxic soup into the air.
Critics point out that Covanta Energy, a giant in the industry, has faced more than $700,000 in environmental fines in the United States.
But the company says it's not going to be an issue.
"We've had a couple of issues in the past but they were not repeatable and we addressed those," said Thomas Lyons.
"What we're planning for Gold River is the most modern technology on the market."
So while many questions remain about the future of garbage incineration, it's likely the temperature of the debate will rise as politicians prepare to make up their minds.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Mi-Jung Lee
