BC’s waste management

Q: How can BC’s waste management system be made more sustainable?

As of now, BC still does rely on recycling and sending waste to landfill, like the Vancouver Landfill located in Delta. But if the waste management system is to be improved, what can be done to make the system more eco-friendly? Here are some suggestions:

• Turning garbage into energy: Sweeden uses incinerators to burn away their waste in a system called Waste-To-Energy. Not only this lessens their dependence on land usage for garbage dumping (so far, only 1% of all garbage is sent to a landfill), but the steam generated from those furnaces can, in turn, generate energy, which can meet heating demands of 1.25 million apartments and electricity for 680,000 homes over the region.
• Building landfills offshore: In Singapore, where they rely on their first and only offshore landfill — Semakau Landfill. Garbage is first turned into ash by the incinerators around the country and then transported into this place, where people dump ash deep into the sea. Not only it helps with the marine biodiversity near the landfill, but it also looks aesthetically pleasing.