A local mass-burn facility that turns waste into electricity will be disposing roughly 1,500 tonnes of repatriated Canadian garbage shipped from the Philippines.
On Friday, Metro Vancouver announced its Waste-to-Energy Facility in Burnaby has been selected by the federal government to dispose of the waste because of its closeness to the Port of Vancouver and its ability to receive waste under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's International Waste Directive.
"For decades, Metro Vancouver’s Waste-to-Energy Facility has responsibly processed waste material from the international airline and shipping industries, as well as other materials designated for secure disposal by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency," said Sav Dhaliwal, board chair of Metro Vancouver. "We have the technology and capacity to safely and efficiently handle this type of material."
The announcement comes days after the Philippines' president threatened to dump the containers of trash into Canadian waters after Ottawa missed a deadline to deal with the nearly six-year-old dispute.
"We will not allow ourselves to be a dumping ground of trash," said presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo in Manila Thursday.
Earlier this week, Ottawa signed a $1.14-million contract with the Canadian arm of French shipping giant Bollare Logistics to prepare and ship 69 containers of Canadian waste that have been sitting in ports in the Philippines for the past several years.
The garbage was initially shipped from the Port of Vancouver to the Philippines by a private company, Chronic Inc., for recycling in 2013 and 2014.
Philippine authorities were alarmed the amount of material was more than it could process, and ordered an inspection, finding the containers had been falsely labelled as plastics for recycling.
Metro Vancouver said characterization studies conducted in 2014 and 2015 found the waste consisted mostly of paper and mixed plastics with "low levels of contaminants," such as electronics and household waste.
Chronic Inc. has since gone out of business and it's not believed to have violated any Canadian laws when it shipped the waste, making it difficult for Ottawa to recover costs.
"Canada is taking all necessary measures for the prompt, safe, and environmentally sound disposal of the waste that was left in the Philippines by a Canadian company," said Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna. "We are working with Metro Vancouver to swiftly and safely dispose of the waste upon arrival."
The estimated 1,500 tonnes of waste is expected to take about two days' worth of processing at the Burnaby facility.
A Metro Vancouver bylaw rate for the special handling of the waste is $250 per tonne. All costs related to the shipping and disposable will be absorbed by the federal government.
With files from The Canadian Press
