RESEARCH | RESOURCES | FEEDBACK | NEWSLETTERS | EVENTS
We champion Zero Waste. From feedback on reports and releases by the government, to resources and presentations for various organizations, our recent projects are listed below for review.
We have a group of interested participants who may wish to help create feedback on draft papers and plans or who may wish to see the draft feedback to assist them in creating their own feedback. If you would like to join, please email info@zerowastebc.ca.
Press Release
July 7th, 2025 Health Alarm: Toxic Dioxins and Heavy Metals Detected Near Metro Vancouver Incinerator
Independent testing has revealed dangerous levels of dioxins, furans, and heavy metals in dust collected from a rooftop within 500 metres of Metro Vancouver’s waste incinerator in Burnaby, raising serious health concerns for nearby communities. See more details here.
July 30th -update Re: Metro Vancouver response added -scroll to the bottom of this page here.
Press Release
February 26, 2025 Metro Vancouver Must Shut Down the Burnaby Waste-to-Energy Facility to Meet its Environmental and Financial Goals
Environmental organizations Zero Waste BC, Zero Waste Canada, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment BC, Doctors for Planetary Health – West Coast, GAIA, and For Our Kids, Burnaby urge Metro Vancouver to phase out its waste incinerator citing economic, environmental, health, and climate impacts
See details here.
Media Coverage:
CBC –interview with CAPE’s Dr Melissa Lem
CBC –Metro Vancouver’s rebuttal
ZWBC, Zero Waste Canada and GAIA’s response to Metro Vancouver’s arguments
Please sign our petition to shut the Metro Vancouver Waste to Energy Facility.
A Deeper Dive on Waste to Energy
In 2023, in partnership with GAIA and other environmental groups, ZWBC conducted in-depth research on waste to energy. This resulted in four resources that are part of the Stopping Waste to Energy in Canada campaign. See more on the resources below.
Environment and Climate Change Canada commissioned a study on waste to energy, however the scope was set very narrowly. ZWBC, in collaboration with GAIA, reviewed the report using a broader lens to ensure the full climate picture was captured. Results can be seen here.
Local governments are often approached with sales pitches for waste to energy. This report , made in collaboration with Durham Environment Watch, Zero Waste 4 Zero Burning and the Ontario Zero Waste Coalition highlights many cases where pursuit of these technologies was unsuccessful or resulted in financial, environmental and social issues for the communities. Communities need to understand the risks.
An analysis of Metro Vancouver’s waste management over the duration of its last solid waste management plan was conducted, looking at waste volumes, costs and GHGs. Results show that a focus on zero waste strategies were successful and cost-effective while incineration was costly with high GHG emissions. This report was built on the data shown below in the waste planning analysis.
The fourth piece, written by Zero Waste Canada, includes basic facts and information on the risks of incineration and Zero Waste alternatives as well as key resources for more information.
If your community is facing a waste-to-energy proposal, here is a list of questions to ask.
Did you miss our webinars?
April 3, 2024 for environmental groups webinar recording
April 11, 2024 for local governments webinar recording
Other tools that may be useful:
Belinda’s presentation on Climate Impacts from Incineration
Liz’ s presentation on Cautionary Tales
Sue’s presentation on the Metro Vancouver Case Study
Janek’s presentation on the European perspective
See here for additional answers to questions from the webinar
Metro Vancouver Waste to Energy Facility
We continue to support Metro Vancouver in choosing better alternatives than continuing with the aging Burnaby Incinerator. To this end, we engaged Dr Douw Steyn to review air quality standards for ambient air and also for emissions from incineration and cement kilns. His report shows that standards in BC should be tighter. Based on that, we submitted comments when Metro Vancouver asked the province to continue to allow emissions over the provincial requirements. We also replied to the CAO’s letter defending the facility. See our response here.
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Metro Vancouver Waste Planning -an analysis of 2010-2020 data
We conducted an analysis of the best, current publicly available data from 2010 to 2020 in order to see what can be learned to inform the next solid waste plan. Spoiler alert: the results show Zero Waste solutions are effective, the most cost-effective and best for the climate. We presented to the Metro Vancouver Solid Waste Management Plan Independent Consultation and Engagement Panel December 1st, 2023. The presentation can be seen here. Our goal is to learn together about what is working and what the next steps can be. To that end, we are posting the spreadsheet used to calculate the data here so that others can test it out, share any corrected or new data, and share their learnings. Note that this spreadsheet will be different than the presentation data as we update it with revised numbers.
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Strengthening Extended Producer Responsibility in BC
Learn more about this here
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Preparing for BC’s Circular Economy Strategy
In the fall of 2022 with a grant from the Real Estate Foundation of BC and in collaboration with the Climate Caucus, Recycling Council of BC and VGN Resources, ZWBC held a series of workshops with local government elected leaders and staff, First Nation community leaders and staff and environmental non-governmental organizations to discuss ideas for the upcoming development of BC’s Circular Economy Strategy. Many good suggestions came forward and can be seen in the What We Heard report. Other resources include the backgrounder and presentation (though note these were tailored to the different audiences). In 2023 we met with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy to present our findings from this work. See the Policy Brief here.
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A Zero Waste Agenda for BC
This report published October 2021 outlines what is needed to get to Zero Waste in BC along with the climate and job benefits of pursuing this approach. It is a collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives as an update to the 2013 Closing the Loop report. A summary is also available here.
ZWBC Resources
UBCM Resolutions Related to Zero Waste
Resolutions at the Union of BC Municipalities Convention held each year in September can be a way for local governments to advocate for change. Key themes have been asking the province to develop a zero waste (2017) or circular economy (2021) strategy and improving Extended Producer Responsibility programs. We have kept a record of these in a spreadsheet for those who wish to review them. More details can be seen through the UBCM website
Webinar: Managing Waste Contracts
Listen to Doug Schell of BC Housing and Alastair MacCallum of QuadReal give tips for how to better manage your waste contracts to decrease costs, contamination and waste. See the webinar here. Passcode: V@Wzt3Jv
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This toolkit is designed to help local governments develop Zero Waste plans for their communities. It has a suite of actions by level of the Zero Waste Hierarchy and some that are specific to the generating sector. Additional ideas and feedback are welcome.
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District of Kitimat
The District wanted to know more about the pros and cons of waste to energy. See the presentation to Council: PresentationZWBC -DoK
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Waste Free Fraser Valley
Check out this great short video created by youth for youth in the Fraser Valley. For this Fraser Basin Council youth initiative, John Vissers from Zero Waste BC worked with the youth team.
2025
Climate Caucus -webinar on the Circular Economy for local governments(registration here for Feb 26th at 10 am)
2024
Climate and Affordability Webinar Series -Zero Waste and the Circular Economy Increasing Affordability Through Municipal Climate Action –slides
Upstream’s discussion on reusable cups with Tamara Shulman and Sue Maxwell
Presented for the Tsleil-Waututh on a panel on plastics
ZWBC also presented to Metro Vancouver’s Zero Waste Committee and Burnaby’s council encouraging selection of Zero Waste over burning waste.
2023
Presentation to SPEC
We had a booth April 2023 and 2024 at the Rotary Climate Fair in Chilliwack. We also gave a talk about how Zero Waste and Circular Economy are climate solutions. Thanks to everyone who came out and for all the good questions and suggestions.
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BC Social Procurement Initiative -Speaker Series -How Can Procurement Support Zero Waste? December 2022 webinar with Sue Maxwell and Jane Rushton.
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Ocean Wise’s ZILCH Zero Waste Market in Vancouver. ZWBC was there to give a presentation Oct. 1, 2022.
