[Sheba]

Garbage shortage prompts Metro Vancouver to scrap plans for new incinerator

Metro Vancouver has halted plans to build another incinerator to burn the region's waste.

Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore, Metro's board chairman, said while Metro remains committed to waste-to-energy over landfills, it worries there won't be enough garbage to feed a proposed 250,000-tonne plant.

"We don't want to build a facility that's too big."

The regional district has spent $4.5 million since 2012 on investigating waste-to-energy garbage disposal. Directors had pledged to release a short list of potential sites before Christmas and build as many as three waste-to-energy plants in or outside the region by 2018.

Garbage volumes have been dropping sharply as a more people reuse, reduce or recycle waste and organics.

In addition to the rise of recycling, Metro directors say part of the problem is that commercial haulers are taking Metro's garbage to dumps elsewhere, particularly to Washington state. The regional district recently reduced its garbage tipping fees from $109 to $80 per tonne in hopes of drawing more commercial haulers back to Metro.

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