Landfills look to make cash from trash

TORONTO (CP) - Canada's garbage dumps may be getting crowded, but landfill operators are trying to find the cash in all that trash by sucking in the stink and turning it into energy.

Although recycling is on the rise, Statistics Canada says Canadians threw out about 20 per cent more garbage in 2004 compared to 2000, bringing per-capita output to 418 kilograms a year.

Those piles of garbage in landfills create about three per cent of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions, including 23 per cent of all methane emissions, which is 21 times more hazardous to the environment than carbon dioxide.

But thanks to technology that can turn trash into electricity, dozens of landfill operators are taking advantage - a move several provinces are now trying to make mandatory.

British Columbia and Quebec were the first to make rules about harnessing methane at landfills, and now Ontario is now proposing its own regulations.

Ontario's Environment Ministry says about three dozen landfills would likely be affected if the regulations go ahead, which could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the province by about two megatonnes a year.

There's little resistance from the private sector in adopting the technology and many landfill owners are already trapping their methane emissions, said Rob Cook, president of the Ontario Waste Management Association.

"There's multiple benefits to collecting landfill gas, not the least of which is the reduction of potential odour problems, plus of course the economic value of producing energy from that," he said.

Perforated pipes are laid in layers across the landfill sites and suck in the gas, which is then fed to collection centres and then either used on site as energy or piped to nearly industrial sites to be used like natural gas.

Considering all the benefits it provides and the fact the technology is available and the affordable, the idea is a no-brainer, said Ken Ogilvie, executive director of Pollution Probe.

"It's a usable energy or it's a potent greenhouse gas and so really, all large landfills should be required to collect it," Ogilvie said.

"There's just no way it should be vented to the atmosphere if there are credible ways of collecting it."

The Ontario government last week posted the regulations online for a 90-day comment period, but they're unlikely to face any obstacles.

Environment Canada is currently surveying how many landfills are collecting gas for energy across the province, but 2003 figures suggest Ontario has the most, followed by British Columbia and Quebec.

Even though many Ontario landfills already have the technology in place and will be unaffected by the regulations, it is important that it becomes mandatory, Ogilvie said.

"They've got ample evidence that these things work and therefore regulation just makes sense. It will make a contribution."