The figures are very informative and now we have to factor in the intangible benefits and income generated which in turn creates intangibles.....
Italy's incinerator is on fire
Burning garbage near Milan cleanly turns trash into power. So what's Toronto worried about?
By SUE-ANN LEVY
BERGAMO, Italy -- I find it hard to believe this pristine, designer plant has anything to do with garbage -- let alone the burning of it.
There is no smell of trash or any of the toxins typically associated with incinerating it anywhere on REA Dalmine's 40,000-square-metre site.
(Since arriving in Italy two days ago, I've breathed in far more second-hand cigarette smoke and pollution from the streets jam-packed with car traffic.) There's not a speck of smoke emanating from the plant's stack, which rises in a discreet way behind the main office -- the outside of which is covered completely in glass in the style of Toronto's trendy new opera house, the inside accented with fine Italian marble.
In fact, the only real clue that this five-year-old plant -- located about 40 km east of Milan -- is in the garbage management business are the municipal trash-laden trucks which arrive every half hour or so directly from the region of Bergamo. Even they look spotless.
For the purists, REA Dalmine is a waste-to-energy plant. Its officials prefer to call for what it is -- that is, an incinerator with electric power production.
The plant -- built and managed completely by a subsidiary of the privately-held Green Holding Group -- treats 450 tonnes of waste per day, 340 days a year. It cost the equivalent of $136-million Cdn, at current rates, to build -- a far cry from the $220 million or more Toronto will end up paying for the Green Lane landfill site near St. Thomas.
The amount of waste burned at REA Dalmine represents about 60% of the total garbage created by the 700,000 residents of this region. The rest (about 40%) is diverted using an even more sophisticated system than in Toronto -- trash is separated into about seven different bins for plastic, glass, paper, foodstuffs and so on.
"(That) 40% is one of the highest levels in Italy," says Alessandra Salvi, Bergamo's environment minister.
"We'd like to increase that to 50% but it's not that easy," she adds, noting the recycling levels did not decrease when the incineration plant came on stream.
From the waste that is burned at REA Dalmine, 26% is recovered and converted into electrical power -- some 100-million KW/hours per year which is sold to Italy's national hydro grid. That's enough to cover the yearly energy needs of 120,000 people (about 13% of the population of Bergamo). William Epis, research and development manager with the Green Holding Group, has no problem mentioning incineration (an evil word at Toronto City Hall) because this plant is a far cry from the incineration technology first built in Italy in the late '60s.
What makes it so state-of-the-art, he says, is their combustion technology -- which allows them to burn "everything" (at temperatures of more than 850C) no matter how wet the materials are or how much the nature of the garbage changes according to season.
INNOVATIVE SYSTEM
Their innovative dry purification system -- used to treat the fumes from the incineration process -- has resulted in the "lowest level of emissions" among all of Italy's 40 incinerators, Epis says. This plant's gas emissions, in fact, are 90% below the strict standards set by the European Union.
Epis concedes that before the plant came on stream there was plenty of opposition from area residents. "They think the plant is a monster ... a very polluted source," he said, noting the community calmed down three months later when they didn't see any smoke.
Salvi insists landfill is no longer an alternative in Italy and their experience has told them incineration has a "lower environmental impact" than landfill.
From a dollars standpoint, landfill is not only more costly, Salvi adds, but provides no fiscal return (like waste-to-energy technology.)
"The reality is there is a significant environmental impact we can't even quantify when you throw garbage into a piece of land," says Salvi. "Landfill is forever."
Garbage: By the numbers
Some fiery hot numbers about REA Dalmine's Italian incinerator and Toronto's garbage (all numbers in Canadian, Euro to Canadian numbers based on today's exchange rates):
- Toronto's cost to dump its trash in Michigan: $63 a tonne
- Toronto's cost to dump its trash at the newly acquired Green Lane landfill site near London: less than $88 a tonne, but more than $63 a tonne
- Italian incinerator REA Dalmine's earnings from cities to take garbage: $123 a tonne, plus money made from selling power generated from incinerator
- Previous cost for those European cities to dump at a Swiss landfill, before moving to the incinerator: $500 a tonne
- Cost of REA Dalmine's incinerator: $136 million
- Cost for Toronto to buy Green Lane landfill: $220.3 million
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