Despite the Village of Cache Creek’s efforts, the volume of waste sent to the landfill continues to drop.
Metro Vancouver shipped 39,020 tonnes in November and although that has been the highest monthly figure of 2010 so far, overall last year was the lowest on record with only 296,742 tonnes shipped.
December’s figures aren’t available yet, but even so those numbers won’t bring it up to the yearly average of about 456,734 tonnes.
Mayor John Ranta asked for and received clarification regarding a memo from MV to Wastech, their solid waste managers. The memo advised Wastech that they should be prepared to dispose of between 6-700,000 tonnes of waste from MV in 2011.
The memo specified that Wastech should divert “sufficient tonnage” to keep the Burnaby incinerator operating at maximum capacity (260-280,000 tonnes), send 200,000 tonnes to the Vancouver Landfill (Burns Bog in Delta), and the rest should be hauled to the Cache Creek Landfill.
Metro Vancouver clarified that it was cheaper to divert waste to Delta than to Cache Creek. However, says Ranta, the cities of Vancouver and Delta want to see less going into Burns Bog, not more. And yet Wastech has been directed to increase the amount from 138,000 to 200,000 tonnes.
The amount of waste left over is in the range of 2-380,000 tonnes.
Less waste sent the landfill means reduced hours and shifts for the Wastech employees, he said.
The Annex has been approved, the Extension is still under review.