Sign the petition here.

Landfills worldwide must be decommissioned and not expanded as we move to a society that embraces zero waste and carbon neutrality in the future. We are living in a climate emergency and other cleaner alternative waste management solutions can be adopted and utilized such has what has already been done successfully in continents that include Europe and Asia involving the use of waste to energy solutions.

The City of Victoria, British Columbia has a centralized landfill managed by the Capital Regional District (CRD). Their draft Solid Waste Management plan includes expanding the existing landfill to extend the life to 2100. The plan entails removing 73 acres of forest and blasting holes in Mount Work, next to a popular recreational area called Mount Work Park.

Why is this important?

There are cleaner and greener alternatives to expanding landfills in the 21st century that don’t involve producing more methane and greenhouse gases as we move forward to achieving a zero waste society and a carbon neutral future.

While we applaud portions of the CRD’s draft plan released November 2020, we believe the planned targets for waste reduction should be more aggressive given we are in a climate emergency. We agree with their Pollution Prevention Hierarchy of the 4R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle and recovery, however, when addressing the remaining residuals (or the 5th R), we want the CRD to include researching alternative waste management technologies, such as waste to energy.

Landfill Revenues

The CRD’s continued reliance on tipping fees as a revenue source, along with projected revenue from the sale of renewable natural gas (RNG) to FortisBC, relies on the status quo approach of continuing to expand a landfill that releases methane gases into the environment.

Emissions from Canadian landfills account for 20% of our national methane emissions according to the Government of Canada’s site on Municipal Solid Waste and Greenhouse Gases. The key issue is that methane isn’t just a fuel – it’s also a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Any methane that is manufactured intentionally, whether from biogenic or other sources, will contribute to climate change if it enters the atmosphere.

Tree Preservation

The CRD’s current plan to destroy 73 acres of forest in the Mount Work area and beyond is misguided. This forest stores 180 tonnes of carbon a year – an offset equivalent to taking 195 cars off the road every year. Over the 50 year extension of the proposed Hartland landfill, carbon emissions would be increased by 9000 tonnes. This amount is inconsistent with the CRD’s overall goal of making the region carbon neutral by 2050.

Forests have many life sustaining values such as controlling rainfall runoff, cleansing water and air, providing habitat for wildlife and birds, and storing carbon. The BC Conservation Data Centre iMap shows that the surrounding forest habitat of Mount Work and Durrance Lake Regional Park are home to 16 species at risk including the rare Western Screech Owl. The proposed loss of 73 acres of forest and accompanying deforestation posed by the CRD’s draft waste management plan will further impact already at-risk species by the further loss of habitat.

Let the Minister of Environment and the CRD Board know that you don’t support their current plans to expand the Hartland Landfill when they could adopt alternative waste management practices, such as the recent move made by the Township of Esquimalt to explore a viable alternative to expanding landfills involving gasification and thermal processes that does not pollute.

We also believe this project may trigger the need for an Environmental Assessment under the Environmental Assessment Act, given the proposed scope.

Have questions? Need further information? Check out the MountWorkCoalition.org website.