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Special Report: Up in Smoke

A plan by the Metro Vancouver regional authority would have taxpayers spending half a billion public dollars on an incinerator to solve the region’s garbage problem.  Would that send Vancouver's Greenest City aspirations up in smoke?   VO digs  into Metro Vancouver's garbage story.  We find conflicts that can be as epic as petty.  Fascinating characters.  Turf wars. Meetings taking place behind closed doors. Contracts worth millions.  Exciting, new technologies.  International intrigue.  And ordinary people fighting for clean air and healthy children.

 

Big companies and big money square off over Metro Van's $480m incineration plan

Will Metro Vancouver's waste go "Up in Smoke?" First in a three-month series.
Mike ChisholmJan 30th, 2014

Metro Van and Fraser Valley Regional District butt heads over incinerator plan

Second in a three-month investigative series.
Mike ChisholmJan 31st, 2014

Big money for one company if Metro Van pushes incinerator plan through. Here's who'll make it.

Just a pile of ugly garbage to you and me. Huge money to one lucky player. Maybe.
Mike ChisholmFeb 4th, 2014

Andrea Reimer says Metro Van's incinerator plan from another era

Is waste-to-energy incineration a path to the future or a blast from the past?
Mike ChisholmFeb 6th, 2014

As Europe shies away from burning trash, Metro Vancouver gears up for $480m waste-to-energy incinerator

Garbage incineration so efficient some countries now importing trash to feed insatiable appetite of waste-burners while threatening recycling initiatives. Fifth in a three-month series.
Mike ChisholmFeb 7th, 2014

Port Moody councillor questions Metro Van's headlong rush to burn garbage

Metro Van is moving too fast to push forward a half-billion dollar incineration plan, a councillor says.
Mike ChisholmFeb 13th, 2014

Metro Vancouver's Burnaby incinerator burning through taxpayer money

It’s a business model that would likely have gotten an executive team in trouble years ago. In 2014, Metro Vancouver’s Burnaby waste-to-energy (WTE) facility will cost taxpayers $22 million...
Mike ChisholmFeb 12th, 2014

New Metro Van plan to heat homes, boil water with sewer gas

Lulu Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. Photo courtesy Metro Vancouver Most people who walk past a sewage treatment plant can easily recognize the pungent aroma that emanates from behind the fence....
Mike ChisholmFeb 27th, 2014

"Dark star" of recycling expected to feed into proposed Metro Van incinerator

In a world expected to nearly double its garbage output by 2025, Helen Spiegelman and her husband are acting locally to reverse that trend. "I make all my own food. I grow my own food. We brew our...
Mike ChisholmFeb 26th, 2014

Turning garbage into electricity, metal and toxic ash at the Burnaby incinerator

Paper, clothing, records, plastics and metal. These aren't supposed to end up tossed in the waste stream, but some have escaped the inspector’s scrutiny and face a fiery end.
Mike ChisholmMar 3rd, 2014