> better than > ???

Why environmentalists insist dumping ton after ton of potentially toxic materials into a big hole in the ground is somehow better for the environment than using plasma gasification to produce heat and electricity is beyond me. You would think, since it reduces CO2 output due to less reliance on coal-burning plants, the environmentalists would welcome such a plan. The City of Ottawa, in partnership with the Plasco Energy Group (http://www.plascoenergygroup.com) are about two weeks away from starting up their new Plasma Gasification plant to convert MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) into Plasma gas to drive turbines to generate electricity. Their unique process has NO EMISSIONS.

For every tonne of solid waste they generate 150 kg of slag which can be used for paving, 1400 KwH of electricity, and 5 kg of saleable sulfur. Nothing else.

It is this, versus a 10 story deep hole in the ground with God knows how many tons of toxic waste just eating through the liner every day seeping into groundwater, and polluting the air with bad odours and methane. What seems less polluting to you?

Is recycling paper environmentally sound? I think not: 29 per cent of all recycled paper in North America is currenty sold to–you guessed it–China. Coal burning container ships carry over nine million tonnes of recovered paper fibres across the ocean to China. Chinese plants use mostly coal to provide the energy to make paper, as opposed to cleaner hydro here in Canada. After China has produced the paper, it is increasingly selling the newsprint back to North American companies, again shipping it across the ocean using coal burning container ships.

So, to recycle our paper, we burn fossil fuels collecting the old paper at your door. Then we burn fossil fuels shipping it to the collecton station. There we use hydro/coal power and chemicals turning it into paper fibres. Then we ship it to China with ships burning fossil fuels. There they make newsprint out of our old paper by powering their process by burning coal, a fossil fuel. Then they ship back the newsprint to us by ships burning fossil fuels.

And why do we do it? For the environment? Using recycled paper doesn’t save trees! Trees used for the paper industry are specifically grown for that purpose. And every time one tree is cut down, at least another one is planted. The net loss is zero. The gas burned by cutting trees, transporting them, and cutting them up is basically equal to the amount of energy required to collect the old recyclables. You only need half the amount of chemicals to produce new paper as opposed to trying to bleach out old ink in recyclables. And best of all, nothing needs to be shipped to China in the new paper process: it is all done here in Canada. It is trained across the country as opposed to shipped across the globe.

Using new paper is better for the environment than recycling old paper. It’s a matter of fact.