Could trash power your home?

SOUTHGATE TOWNSHIP, ONTARIO - A Collingwood-area township has an ambitious plan to start addressing Ontario's twin shortages — landfill space and electricity.

Southgate Township officials announced recently they have a deal with a private company to build a gasification facility that cooks garbage, producing a gas, that can be turned into electricity.

The demonstration facility is to be built in an industrial park south of Dundalk, 45 kilometres northwest of Orangeville.

They plan to follow that with a full-size facility that would accept garbage from nearby communities.

They're not planning on taking garbage from as far away as the Greater Toronto Area, where most municipalities and businesses truck their trash to Michigan.

But a successful gasification project in Southgate could lead to greater public acceptance of waste-to-energy solutions to garbage.

Ontario is in the midst of a waste disposal crisis, with municipalities and businesses sending nearly 4 million tonnes of garbage to Michigan each year because there's nowhere to put it here.

Ontario also doesn't have enough electrical generating capacity and faces the prospect of brownouts and buying expensive imported power.

These two problems, combined with community opposition to building new landfills, has municipalities starting to look at incinerators and other thermal technologies.

Next month, York and Durham regions plan public meetings on a recommendation to build a waste-to-energy incinerator.

Right now, Ontario's only residential waste incinerator is in Peel Region.

The gasification proposal in Southgate is similar to incineration. Instead of an open flame, the technology the company, Greey CTS, wants to use cooks garbage at 550 Celsius in an oxygen starved environment. This makes it more efficient and environmentally friendly, they say.

The gas and steam produced can generate enough electricity to power thousands of homes.

David Greey, who has long been looking for a site in Ontario to showcase the gasification technology his company owns the North America rights to, has agreed to lease the land, pay the costs associated with getting provincial approvals for the project and build the $15 million demonstration facility.

"It's a terrific opportunity for us to introduce proven equipment to (Ontario)," Greey said, adding that this technology is already being used for municipal waste in Alaska.

In exchange for providing a site, and putting in $1.4 million of municipal infrastructure to service the industrial park, Southgate will get a per-tonne royalty and the ability to close its existing landfills.

"We want to be innovators and leaders. We see waste as a resource with a huge economic upside," said Henry Micek, Southgate's economic development officer.

But there are major hurdles to overcome before Southgate will be able to turn the deal they announced into reality.

Southgate wants to have the 24-tonne-a-day demonstration plant running within a year, but to do that the Ministry of the Environment needs to waive the lengthy environmental assessment process. The province can chose to do this given the small size of the plant.

In addition to getting speedy approval for a demonstration facility, Micek also hopes the province will allow them to build the 400-tonne-a-day plant without undergoing a full environmental assessment, once they see how well the demonstration facility works. That would mean they could be building the full size plant in two years, he said.

That plant could handle 254,000 tonnes of waste per year, or 6.35 per cent of the waste currently being shipped from Ontario to Michigan.

In theory, the province can waive the requirement for an environmental assessment but it's never been done for a waste proposal, said John Steele, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment.

Because Ontario is in desperate need of waste disposal options and more electricity, these kinds of projects should get speedy approval, Micek said.

So far, that hasn't been the experience of other municipalities seeking garbage solutions.

If Southgate manages to get all their approvals, there's certainly plenty of garbage available for the facility and many Ontario communities would love to find an Ontario solution so they aren't vulnerable to Michigan's constant threats of closing the border.

"The time has come, people are tired of putting their waste in the ground and deriving very little benefit from it," Southgate mayor Don Lewis said recently.

Southgate, a community of some 7,000 people, produces four tonnes of garbage a day, so a plant designed for 400 tonnes a day would rely on garbage from elsewhere.

"So far, we've had no backlash," said Micek, adding that people understand the economic benefits the township would get from the gasification facility and that the technology is safe.

"Anybody who would oppose this is ill informed," he said.

Local resident Kimberley Love is waiting to be informed. She said Southgate council has been "secretive" about the proposal.

"I think it's a great idea instead of putting garbage in the ground," Ross Krueger said.

This isn't the first time Southgate has tried to capitalize on Ontario's garbage crisis, but some residents have opposed the past two plans.

Last year, Southgate said it would build a landfill to take Toronto's garbage. But, two days later, township council voted to shelve the idea in the face of mass opposition from residents.

Five years ago members of a citizens' coalition used a roadblock to get council to renege on a deal to spread Toronto's sewage sludge on fields.

Micek thinks it will be different this time.

"Waste is not waste. It's a resource that can be turned into huge economic benefit. If people can't see that and want to play the NIMBY role, I can't help them," he said.