The demise of Plasco Energy Group’s waste-to-energy plans was not the fault of Red Deer and doesn’t signal the city is giving up on landfill alternatives, says City Hall.
“I think the important message is this doesn’t mean the end of green alternatives for our waste management,” said city manager Craig Curtis, who was joined by Mayor Morris Flewwelling, Coun. Lynne Mulder and other staff for a Plasco post mortem on Wednesday.
“Now that Plasco is out of the picture, there are all kinds of alternatives, which we can explore both individually and collectively in conjunction with the commission,” Curtis added.
Work has already begun on a solid waste master plan that is expected to be completed in about a year and will propose various waste reduction initiatives.
The Plasco deal fell through earlier this month when the nine communities in the Central Waste Management Commission who were committed to the project couldn’t guarantee enough garbage in a long-term contract.
It was a disappointing end to a five-year pursuit and prompted a stinging letter in Monday’s Advocate from former Red Deer MP and longtime Plasco booster Bob Mills. He criticized the city for only committing 10 per cent of its garbage to Plasco’s gasification plant and landfilling the rest.
“And so, the project died due to a lack of garbage,” Mills wrote.
Flewwelling said Wednesday’s meeting was called because he did not want Mills’ “very negative” letter to be the last word on Plasco.
“We think it’s more important to do the look-forward and see where we’re going in terms of solid waste disposal.”
Mulder, who is the city’s representative on the commission, said a lack of commitment from Red Deer did not sink the Plasco deal.
The city committed 85 per cent of the waste it had control over to the project — about 14,000 tonnes a year. But the majority of the 86,000 tonnes of garbage that goes into the landfill comes from commercial and industrial sources and outside communities.
The city could not guarantee that garbage for Plasco in the 20-year deal that the Ottawa-based company wanted. Also, when other commission members inventoried their garbage more closely, they found the amount they could promise was less than first projected.
“At the end of the day, the regional waste that can be committed does not match the capacity of plant that they have now the available designs and business plan to build,” said Curtis. “So the two are not compatible.”
The city manager said waste-to-energy technologies like Plasco’s are only one approach. Composting, improved recycling and residential green bins for organic waste are all examples of the kinds of things that will be reviewed under the master plan.
“We’re at a certain level of recycling now and we as a city may be able to significantly improve that as well as embrace some other form of technology on a regional basis,” Curtis said.
There is no shortage of companies with technologies designed to reduce the amount of garbage headed to landfills. Now that Plasco is out of the picture, the commission can look closer at what else is available.
Commission members want to continue their regional approach to garbage issues, Mulder said. Among lessons learned has been the usefulness of a needs assessment before undertaking a major project.
Mills remains convinced that the city missed out on a golden opportunity to make itself a leader on the landfill front.
“I just think we really made a really bad mistake by not going to this technology because there’s no financial risk,” he said. “All they had to do was provide the garbage.”
He’s skeptical of explanations that the city could only commit a relatively small percentage of the garbage that goes into the landfill every year. The city owns the landfill and should have been able to come up with more garbage.
“I’m sure that if someone had championed from the city, there would have been enough garbage.”
Mills notes that Ottawa city council overwhelmingly supported a 20-year contract to supply a Plasco gasification plant there. Plasco has also found buyers of its technology in the U.S. and China, where Mills has acted as a consultant for the company. Mills said he has never acted as a paid consultant for the Central Alberta project.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com