The old adage ‘waste not, want not,’ might as well be the motto for one of the proposed residual waste processing systems for the City of Kingston.

Currently seeking public input, the city is in Phase B of its four-part development of an integrated waste management plan. Last week, the city hosted a public information session on the proposed ideas to deal with solid waste in Kingston, and hear questions and feedback from concerned Kingstonians.

One of the proposed waste processing options is thermal treatment, a process by which waste is incinerated, amounting to just over 15% of the wastes original volume.

When used alone, thermal treatment drastically reduces the volume of waste, but when used in conjunction with a waste-to fuel process, the garbage actually becomes an energy source. Since 1988, Metro Vancouver has operated this kind of facility in the region of South Burnaby.

“We look very much to try to derive as much benefit as we can before ultimately what is just burying it in the ground,” said Bill Morrell, a public relations manager for Metro Vancouver.

“The principle here is we believe waste is a resource and should be used as one, and not simply buried in the ground where it produces methane and leachates and frankly is just pushing the impacts off onto future generations.”

Read the full story via Kingston investigates thermal treatment for waste – The Whig Standard – Ontario, CA.