Until the start of this school year, I had no idea that there was any program
Metro Vancouver Waste to Energy Facility photo by Mike
in the Vancouver area generating elelctricity from our garbage. I knew that British Columbia has programs that make producers responsible for costs associated with the collection & recycling of the goods they produce at the end of their life cycles. I knew that our province handles a great deal of our recycling right here while other areas rely more on shipping their waste to other countries. I knew that the area’s main landfill site is in Burns Bog, which also contains a large area of protected wetlands. But I was unaware of Metro Vancouver’s waste to energy plant, which, it turns out, is located right here in Burnaby.
Not only was I unaware of the plan’t existence, it seems like every person I mention it to has been similarly in the dark. Maybe that points to a larger problem. We son’t notice our trash much after we throw it away, when really there is no away. We produce a lot of waste, and maybe if it were more visible we’d pay more attention to it.
There is no simple solution to our waste problems, but paying attention seems like a good way to start.
In the Waste-to-Energy Facility I noticed how much garbage there was in the facility.I’m surprised how people can just carelessly throw away trash instead of recycling. But I do throw a lot of garbage too.
I think everyone should reduce, reuse and recycle. It was very interesting how the waste to energy facility turns trash into energy. But also the garbage they turn into energy is only about 25% of garbage Metro Vancouver produces and there was a lot of garbage there. The gasses the waste to energy facility puts into the atmosphere is generally environmentally healthy, but only a little bit of the gasses are harmful.
When I’m in my house, I’ll try to start recycling more to help the environment and save the planet. I still have a lot unanswered questions about climate change. So, I’ll try to find the answers to my questions.
I was really sad that there was a lot of garbage in the dump. I was surprised that they burn the trash to make energy. What I didn’t like about was that it was really smelly inside the factory. I had fun going to the field trip.
Your post is really connected to mine.
Interesting! What are the connections you noticed? What more might we be able to do by putting your ideas together?
The garbage smell reminded me about how smelly my garbage bin was at my house. To make the world better, we should recycle more, then throwing away garbage in the trash, to make less greenhouse pollution.
The field trip to the Waste to energy facility was really fun! I was pretty shocked on how that was only 25% of the waste in Metro Vancouver. There was a whole lot of garbage in the dump.
I think people should try to reduce and reuse their waste, and try to be mindful on how much garbage they make.
On Wednesday me and my class went to the metro Vancouver waste to energy facility. I was intrigued by how much garbage there was and how it was only 20% of the trash in Vancouver. (the other 80% percent goes to the landfill of shipped to the U.S.) In the future i hope that we can stop producing garbage
When shoud we stop producing garbage? What are we doing now that is producing so much garbage? How and when do we stop?
I was sad that there was so much garbage. I was really surprised that people burn garbage to make energy. It was really smelly there we had to walk a lot and it was there was so much smell. But at the end i loved it.
What did you love about it? What do you think about burning waste to produce electricity? What do you think will get us to change the way we live so that we don’t end up with so much waste?
When we went to the waste to energy facility my group had fun.
And it smelt worse than manure.
Where did you notice the odour. or maybe more to the point, where were you when you noticed the odour? What do you think about the way our waste is being managed?
Parixit#26
I was excited to go to the metrotown waste energy facility. I was shocked when I got to know that the waste energy facility burns 250,000 tones of waste every year and that too much. I think that is too much. We should stop creating a lot of garbage and use the three R ” Reuse , Reduse ,Recycle.
How can we get EVERYONE to reduce what we buy and use? Can we reuse or recycle absolutely EVERYTHING? I hope we can do much better; we need to. But right now we ARE producing a lot of garbage. What should we do with all those tons of garbage that are being produced in our area every day? The waste to energy facility certainly does quite an impressive job of cleaning the gases released during burning and reusing the material left afterward as much as possible.
The field trip to the waste to energy facility was cool but it was very stinky, i was pretty shocked that, that was only 25% of the waste in Metro Vancouver because there was a lot of garbage in the dump.
I think people should reused, reuse and recycle and be mindful of how much garbage they make.
But in the end i loved it because i learned many new things i never did before, and now i’ll be sure to recycle more to help the environment and save the planet.
Do you think we can make a big enough difference by reusing & recycling? Is there more we need to do? If so, what, and where do you think we should start?
On November 20, 2019, my class went on a field trip to the waste-to-energy facility. At the field trip, there was a process introduced to our class. This process gets rid of garbage without creating any pollution. We also got to tour around and see the stations processing by workers. The garbage gets burned and the greenhouse gas releasing from it gets filtered then released into the atmosphere. The garbage gets dealt at the facility, but there is also garbage going into landfills. I think we should build more facilities like the waste-to-energy. We should stop creating so much garbage at fist. So we should think more about the 3 R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle. We should think more before we throw things away, so its not a problem at first.
When we went to the waste to energy facility some thing I noticed is that amount of garbage was only 20% of the garbage in Canada.
Was the waste there from all of Canada? Let’s make sure we are careful with the figures and statements we toss around.
At the waste to energy facility, I was shocked that only 25% of garbage goes to that facility, and the other 75% goes to landfills or is shipped to America.
Of course, there is quite a bit of material that does get recycled in our area, and the statistics we were given had to do with garbage. It can be hard to get a good idea of what the statistics mean when so many percentages get put in front of us the way they were. I think you are right to raise concerns about finding ways we could do an even better job of dealing with our waste.
on Wednesday our class went to the waste to energy-facility. I was surprised how much garbage people carelessly throw away why cant they just reduce,reuse,recycle it would be better for the environment. it also smelled really bad there because all of the garbage was squished.
It makes an impression, seeing that much waste in one place! I’m going to disagree with you a little, though. I would argue that it is the waste we did NOT see at the waste-to-energy facility that has been treated carelessly. Everything we saw was dutifully put in collection containers to be sent to where it could be handled. It is true that some items that could have been recycled or composted do end up being burned to generate electricity, but it also seems like converting waste to energy could be a useful part of any waste-reduction strategy.
The thing that stood out to me the most was the amount of garbage in there and the fire was really hot when you touch the surface of the object the fire was in. And it was really fun looking around and learning. And it surprised me that it was only 20% of the garbage in Canada.
I’m seeing many of your peers refer to the waste at the plant being 20% of the garbage in Canada. I don’t remember hearing that statistic. We should talk again about it and check our understanding.
I think what stood out to me the most was the amount of garbage there was and i what even more surprised when i heard that was only 20% of Canada’s garbage.I was confused at the start when they said they could turn garbage into energy then i we got a tour of the facility and i started to believe them.
I’m not sure they had 20% of CANADA’S waste there, but it was clear that we do create a lot of waste. Do you still have questions about how the energy is produced?
This was a fun field trip, But we should definitely re-use more things the amount of garbage in the pit was definitely excessive. And the amount of methane being produced from the food scraps (64%) I just thought that was insane we need to better about food scraps and the green house gases and the W.T.E facility should get more garbage then only 20% because I think they are better at getting rid of garbage than the landfill I dont really understand what the landfill does that is anything helpful for the environment great field trip though I learned a lot thank you.
At the waste to energy facility I think the way they convert garbage in to energy is really interesting, And what really got me shocked is how much garbage there was even when i knew it was only 25% of it!
When will we stop making so much garbage? What can we do to stop producing so much garbage? Can we reuse or recycle EVERYTHING and how will we do it is it even possible? If so can every person start to do it can we save our planet can we make it better than it was before? Well what do YOU think do your part to save our planet to make it better then it was before!
You are asking important questions. Do you remember when we were shown how the countries with the most expensive energy were the most efficient energy users? Maybe if producing garbage were more expensive people might be motivated to produce less of it.
I really like that they can turn wast to energy other then threw it away I think that it is so cool that they can do that I what to go back.
It does seem better to convert the waste to energy rather than just try to put it where we can’t see it. How might we be able to stop putting so much energy into creating the waste in the first place?