Thermal Waste Management:

In this section you'll find information about the garbage gasification issue, including links to scientific papers and articles in the press about places that have these incinerators and relevant Toronto City Hall. This is a complicated issue and we hope to provide information to help you decide where you stand on this issue.

Information from Environmental Organizations:

• "Types of Incineration" Greenpeace Web Site.

  A useful, 1-page, primer on the different incineration technologies and terminology. A good introduction to the subject.

• Pyrolysis and Thermal Gasification of Municipal Solid Waste Fact Sheet from the BLUE RIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE LEAGUE Solid Waste Management Project

• Waste Gasification: Impacts on the Environment and Public Health Report from the BLUE RIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE LEAGUE

• Letter from Louis Zeller Blue Ridge Environmental Agency.

• Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance
Lots of information here, including these papers:
• Incineration: A Costly Commitment
• "Incineration and Gasification: A Toxic Comparison" April 2002, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League

  A short (3-page) paper which concludes that the emissions from incineration and gasification of municipal solid waste differ in some insignificant ways but are essentially comparable in both the type and amounts of toxic air pollutants.

• "Incineration and Human Health" 2001, Greenpeace Research Laboratories.

  An exhaustive report that draws together data on incinerator releases and their effects on human health. Focusses on "traditional" incineration, but makes reference to the ongoing deleterious health effects of "new" incineration technologies, which have often simply replaced the toxins formerly released into the air with the same toxins in other forms of residue. Stresses the need to phase out all forms of incineration in favour of more responsible forms of waste and resource management.

• Waste Gasification: Impacts on the Environment and Public Health by Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, April 2002

  An analysis of the negative impacts of gasification and pyrolysis of municipal solid waste, including air pollution, water pollution, disposal of ash and other by-products, large amount of water required for cooling, health and safety impacts, odor impacts, disincentives for waste reduction, and diversion of waste from recycling and composting.

• Municiple Waste Incineration: A Poor Solution for the 21st Century by Paul Connett

  Presented at the 4th Annual Waste-to-Energy Conference in Amsterdam, November, 1998

• Pollution Prevention Options for Incineration Prepared by Lisa McShane and John Jackson for the Canadian Environmental Law Association, April 2002.
• The Green Pages - Environmental Products and Services See especially the Waste Management Section
• CSE Position against ATT
• CSE's Solution Plan overview for Toronto's Waste

Information from Businesses:

• The Gasification of Domestic Waste for Energy Recovery and Waste Minimization

  From a UK company. This company participated in an interesting sounding conference -- Waste 2002 about integrated waste management and pollution control research, policy and practice.

• Compact Power

  This UK company has a commercial product using pyrolysis, gasification and high temperature oxidation that can deal with a capacity of 8,000 to 32,000 tonnes per annum. This is much less than the 400,000 + tonnes of residual waste estimated for Toronto. Operating in Bristol, England.

• Recovered Energy Co

  This US company has a Plasma Gasification process (using temperatures of 8000 degrees F vs 1500 of normal gasification plants. Their description of gasification / vs incineration is of interest as is their claim that their process results in ethanol and no other residual.

• American Ref-Fuel Company

  The largest waste-to-energy company in the northeastern United States, they claim to convert more than five million tons of municipal solid waste annually into enough energy to meet the needs of 350,000 homes.

  This corporate web site, of course, doesn't have anything negative to say about incineration of municipal waste, since that's the company's business. Follow the "Our Process" link on the site for an illustration of one their typical plants, with pop-up blurbs expanding on steps within the process.

• Gasification Technologies Council

  The web site of the Gasification Technologies Council, an industry association comprised of companies involved in the development and licensing of gasification technologies. Has a library of industry-sponsored papers and presentations, including papers from the Gasification Technologies conferences.

• Primenergy, L.L.C.

  Staff from the Toronto Works Department have visited Primenergy's test site, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Primenergy features a proprietary gasification technology and gas cleaning process, which is used to convert "biomass feed stocks" which includes municipal solid waste, to recovered energy in the form of heat, steam and electricity.

Toronto City Hall Links:

• " Reference List" February 2003.

  The City Staff have put together a comprehensive bibliography of reference papers on relevant topics: ATT, Anaerobic Digestion, Composting etc.

  Although a number of the links aren't active, this is a helpful list.

• "A Comparison of Gasification and Incineration of Hazardous Wastes" March 2000, Radian International for the U.S Department of Energy

  In a May 15, 2002 report to the Works Committee, Recommendation 5 states that this report be made available to the Citizen and Expert Advisory Group to be established to guide the review of new and emerging technologies, policies and practices re solid waste diversion.

  Although this report deals with the differences between traditional incineration and gasification technologies with respect to hazardous waste (not municipal solid waste), it is a thorough introduction to gasification technology.

• New and Emerging Technologies Working towards a "Made in Toronto" Solution to Waste Management.
• Works Committee Minutes August 30 2002, Formation of a Citizens and Expert Advisory Council
• Submission from CSE January, 2003 regarding the composition of the committee

Press:

• Burning Issues Slouches Toward Council Eye Magazine, 11.14.02
• Incinerator Meeting Dodges Burning Issues Eye Magazine, 09.12.02
• Burning Issue: The Politics of High-Tech Garbage Disposal are heating up Eye Magazine, 05.30.02
• Cooked Trash a recipe for Polution Eye Magazine, 02.21.02
• Desperate Council Vows to Recycle Everything Eye Magazine, 12.13.01
• Sherbrooke Evaluates GasificationSolid Waste & Recycling, Aug/Sept 2002 (An industry magazine)