Excerpt from Part 3: Incinerators - The Next Generation "Waste Circus" Coming to Canada

by Joyce Nelson

Preferential Treatment

In Canada, the federal government has been doling out funding to this sector, with billions of dollars available both for WTE companies and for municipalities to invest in WTE incineration via P3s.

For years, the point-man on the WTE incineration issue at the federal level has been Bob Mills, the five-term (1993-2008) MP from Red Deer, Alberta, and one of the original Reform Party MPs. Before retiring from office in 2008 to become the registered lobbyist for Ottawa-based Plasco Energy Group, Mills was the Alliance/Conservative environment critic (as of 2001), then a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development (2005-2007), and then Chair of that powerful Committee (2007-2008).

By 2005, Mills had become a committed believer in gasification WTE incineration for MSW and had convinced his Red Deer constituency to take a trip to Germany to see WTE incineration in action.

In that same year, Plasco brought Ottawa businessman Rod Bryden on board as President. Toronto's Now Magazine (April 5, 2007) called Bryden "a deep Liberal insider, the largest single donor to [Ontario Premier] Dalton McGuinty's 1996 leadership campaign ($10 grand) [and] co-chair of Stephane Dion's leadership transition team."

by Joyce Nelson

With the November 2009 release of Metro Vancouver's draft "Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan," the Greater Vancouver Region is formally on the path to building one or more waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerators by 2015. The Plan confirms that "Metro Vancouver will establish up to 500,000 tonnes per year of new waste-to-energy capacity within the region." 

by Susan MacVittie

It seems that the brighter colours and sharper images that flat screen TVs offer come at a price. They are electricity hogs.

LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs, which account for 90% of the four million TVs purchased in California each year, consume 43% more energy on average than the older cathode ray tube TVs (CRTs), while plasma TVs use three times as much. A 60-inch plasma TV uses more power in a few hours than the largest residential refrigerator running 24 hours.

by Joyce Nelson

Across Canada, the US, the UK, Europe, and Asia, communities are facing an unprecedented onslaught of proposals for new incinerators. In July 2008, Friends of the Earth released a map showing dozens of planned new incinerator sites across the UK. The British government has committed billions to new incineration, while cutting budgets for recycling by 30 per cent.

Germany, which already has such an over-capacity of incineration that it imports millions of tonnes of garbage each year to feed its maw, is nonetheless planning 100 new incinerators. The Germany waste-disposal industry is lobbying fiercely to get the government out of regulating the sector.

by Anna Tilman

Reality Check

The nuclear energy industry has a dream of a new renaissance - but their dream could be our nightmare. Already there are large quantities of long-lasting highly radioactive waste at reactor sites sitting in cooling pools of water with nowhere to go. A nuclear renaissance would only make this desperate problem even worse.

Despite all the reports about leaks, shutdowns (temporary and long-term), construction woes, and financial costs, nuclear power proponents continue to portray it as safe, reliable and cheap. Worst of all, they portray it as the solution for climate change.

Introduction by Delores Broten

If you use the internet, a WiFi connection seems like the greatest thing since cell phones. Increasingly, however, questions are being asked about the health impact of these handy devices and their signal towers. Each expansion of the technology spreads more invisible rays through our schools, our cities, and our bodies.

Digging into the information on electromagnetic fields (EMF) is a minefield, occasionally entertain­ing, frequently fascinating, definitely complicated, certainly a great way to spend a lot of time to win few an­swers.