Sludge Watch ==> Toronto: 91% approve burning trash

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This poll shows that Torontonians believe that their waste practices must 
change.  This is true!
Incineration is seen as a part of an overall waste plan.

Waste plan.

Does Toronto have a 'waste plan'?Toronto just seems to lurch from crisis to 
crisis when it comes to its sludge, trash, and greenbin waste.

Urban centres must not be allowed to continually take the low road on its 
wastes.  The low road is sending waste out to the rural hinterland.  The 
idea that Toronto sludge and trash are a 'gift' to the countryside is a sad 
joke.

Instead cities need to work with other levels of government, industry, and 
environmental groups to develop comprehensive waste reduction, waste 
separation, waste recycling and waste disposal methods.   The Swedes (still) 
have it right.

They reduce as much as they can (eg..toothpaste tubes don't come in those 
unnecessary cardboard boxes), they utilize burnable materials for biomass 
energy production, and then incinerate only a small percentage of the 
overall unreducable debris and landfill the residue.

They get energy from their sludge digesters to power buses and taxis. They 
burn sludge for power and get distributed heat from it for homes and 
businesses.

There is a waste plan to brag about.  This isn't a perfect world, but the 
Swedes are at the same time outlawing chemcials that have an unknown 
environmental fate, and banning excessive packaging.

Hand wringing by the Mayor of Toronto just isn't translating into a 
comprehensive strategy whereby Toronto takes responsibility for its own 
wastes and manages them with minimal impact on the rural hinterland using 
best available technology.  With what Toronto is paying for its sludge and 
trash haul and dump plan ...they could step up and implement the world best 
policies for waste reduction and pollution prevention and best technologies 
for waste management.   But that would take public education and political 
leadership.  Both are in short supply at Toronto and the Ontario Government.

The public is willing...the politicians and staffers are still reluctant to 
take the bull by the horns.

..........................................................................................

Tuesday, October 31, 2006 | Updated at 9:07 AM EST


91% approve burning trash
Miller at odds with challengers; warns technology unsafe
Toronto Star


With Greater Toronto facing a garbage crisis, more than nine in 10 GTA 
residents believe burning waste to produce electricity could be a viable 
solution.

And according to a Toronto Star/Decima Research poll, 79 per cent of 
respondents also said it's time their city considered significant changes 
and new solutions to garbage-disposal problems.

"There is a very widespread view that the garbage situation has to change," 
said Decima chief executive Bruce Anderson. "These results show that people 
not only want to believe, but are prepared to believe, that technology will 
be able to turn garbage into valuable energy without harmful emissions.

"Whatever resistance political leaders might sense to traditional 
incineration concepts may not be relevant to how the public will react to 
modern technologies and current circumstances."

Toronto Mayor David Miller is a staunch opponent of incineration, saying 
such facilities can produce dangerous dioxins. Two of his election 
challengers, Councillor Jane Pitfield and Stephen LeDrew, say the city 
should consider energy-from-waste plants as a way to deal with the growing 
garbage crisis.

Halton, York, and Durham regions are considering new plans for 
energy-from-waste facilities, while Peel Region has a small incinerator for 
garbage.


Decima researchers told poll respondents that "one technology in the testing 
stage takes waste that would otherwise be sent to a landfill, and uses very 
high heat to break it down, at the same time creating electricity that can 
be used for homes and businesses. The process is supposed to create no air 
emissions, and produce only a non-toxic, glass-like substance that can be 
used in road building."

Respondents were asked if they think the technology "will prove successful 
and a good way to reduce garbage and create electricity, or will prove a 
failure and create emissions that are harmful?"

Ninety-one per cent of GTA residents polled said they think the technology 
will prove successful. The number was the same in Toronto, while it rose to 
94 per cent in Durham and Peel. But it was slightly lower in York and Halton 
at 89 per cent.

Asked if they thought it was time that their city consider "significant 
changes and new solutions to the garbage crisis," 79 per cent of respondents 
in the GTA agreed.

Ontario officials have noted that burning the garbage Ontario sends to 
Michigan could produce enough power for about 200,000 homes -- and help 
solve the dilemma about where to store the province's trash.

"There are jurisdictions throughout the world that use energy from waste," 
Energy Minister Donna Cansfield said earlier this year. "They have (as) 
rigorous environmental standards as we do in Europe, so if they can do it, 
the question is, why can't we?"

Speaking at a Toronto Star/Citytv debate recently, Pitfield said she favours 
a "clean energy-from-waste" system that would avoid the city's "medieval" 
dependence on landfills.

LeDrew said Toronto should team up with York and Durham regions to see if 
it's environmentally feasible.

Miller said burning garbage is bad for the air. At the Star/City debate, he 
repeatedly asked Pitfield if she would put an incinerator in her Leaside 
neighbourhood.

The councillor said she wouldn't object if it were safe.

While most poll respondents think burning garbage will prove successful, 65 
per cent of GTA residents support the City of Toronto's plan to buy a 
landfill site near London, Ont.

Fifty-seven per cent said they support the idea, while 8 per cent said they 
strongly support the concept. Last month, Toronto councillors approved the 
purchase of Green Lane landfill near London instead of shipping waste to 
Michigan, which will be banned by 2010.

Decima's Anderson noted that 13 per cent of respondents said they strongly 
oppose the purchase plan.

"The 65 per cent support for buying a landfill indicates that people maybe 
prefer it to no plan, or to continuing to truck garbage to the U.S.," he 
said, "but this is far from a really enthusiastic support level given the 
size of the problem people acknowledge. The level of `strongly oppose' is 
greater than the `strongly support,' which speaks to the fact that the idea 
may be acceptable to many people but isn't something that is seen as an 
ideal solution."

On the landfill issue, 69 per cent of those in Toronto said they support the 
London proposal, while it's backed by 71 per cent in York Region. In Peel, 
58 per cent are behind it, compared to 57 per cent in Halton and Durham.

Decima's polling shows garbage is one of the most pressing issues in the 
minds of Toronto residents, with 82 per cent of respondents saying it's 
crucial or very important. Crime and traffic were rated as bigger issues, 
but only by a small amount.

On other questions, 90 per cent of GTA residents said they support the 
province's plan to bring in a deposit/return system for all liquor and wine 
bottles. Fifty-eight per cent of those polled said they strongly support the 
plan.

Almost nine in 10 respondents said they're in favour of creating a "GTA 
greenbelt" to reduce urban sprawl and protect farmland outside the city. 
Forty-nine per cent said they strongly support the concept.

Decima surveyed 748 people in the GTA between Oct. 20 and 26 using Computer 
Assisted Web Interviewing. The results are considered accurate to within 
plus or minus 3.6 percentage points 19 times out of 20.



ewatch Admin: