[getsmart-l] Letter to the Editor- Re: Mar 27, 2007 Changes to incineration rules slammed

[23skidoo]

Wednesday, March 28 2007

Toronto Star
Dear Editor;

Re: Mar 27, 2007  Changes to incineration rules slammed

These poor souls who govern over us in Ontario are apparently afflicted with an abundance of short sightedness or outright ignorance as they  consider burning our finite resources as though there was an infinite supply of them.
And soo sadly we are poised to make another grave error in judgment as things go positively 'green' everywhere else.  

While the incineration proponents here might suggest their methods are allegedly clean, safe and affordable  - consider a country like Germany and its northern province of Schleswig-Holstein which has very tight environmental regulations to protect its citizens from any outlandish ideas like incineration.  The trick of relabelling the process "energy from 'waste' " is a sad exchange for a well known method of delivering some of the deadliest known toxins such as dioxin to humankind.

At Hamburg's proposed new incinerator the operators had to shut down their plans because it would cost them too much to install the correct environmental safety measures and equipment which their system of governance and its people expect from them.

So the amount of money to purchase the correct technology to make it safe for the environment made the venture prohibitively expensive and NOT worthwhile in pursuing.
So who are these local yocals kidding if obviously it can't be done up to par with true green standards.

On a planet with finite resources only idiots would bury them in landfill sites or burn them and attempt to disguise it as a 'green' solution.

Film at 11:00
***
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/196281

Changes to incineration rules slammed
Easing approval process to burn waste for energy will add to climate change, pollution, critics say

Mar 27, 2007 04:30 AM 
Peter Gorrie 
Environment writer

Queen's Park has streamlined environmental approvals for incinerators that generate electricity by burning garbage - a move that critics say will contribute to climate change and pollution, and undermine the province's Blue Box recycling system.

Under regulations made public late last Friday, environmental assessments are no longer required for small pilot projects for "new waste technologies," such as energy-from-waste incinerators.

"Our goal is to improve the environmental assessment process and to give municipalities and industry more effective tools for managing waste," Environment Minister Laurel Broten said in a news release. 

In public consultations last year, many Ontario municipalities made it clear they wanted more options for getting rid of garbage and support incineration, a spokesperson for the minister said yesterday.

Critics said the move would lead to increased greenhouse gas and toxic emissions, and also discourage recycling and waste diversion since incinerators need a massive guaranteed supply of combustible materials. That leads to pressure to burn paper, plastics and other recyclable materials, they said.

"It is truly outrageous that the Ontario government is fast-tracking these controversial changes despite the fact that these incinerators produce 33 per cent more greenhouse gases per unit of energy than coal-fired power plants," said Anastasia Lintner, a lawyer and economist with Sierra Legal. "Recycling and reuse of waste can save more than 25 times the energy recovered by incineration."

The justification seems to be that incinerators "somehow will make a contribution to the province's energy supply," said Mark Winfield, of the Pembina Institute.

"Yet recycling products like newspapers and plastic containers uses far less energy than having to recreate that entire product," Winfield said. "Recycling programs are simply a far more rational energy conservation strategy."

York and Durham Regions are studying construction of a $250 million incinerator in Clarington. Others are being considered for Hamilton, Halton Region, Niagara Region and Ottawa. 
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