The Ford government has approved a massive expansion of a garbage-burning plant in Brampton despite concerns about emissions raised by Peel Region and environmentalists.
The expansion of the plant, Emerald Energy from Waste, located on Bramalea Rd. south of Hwy. 407, is expected to break ground this October. When complete, it will be one of North America’s largest energy-from-waste incinerators, able to burn six times the capacity it has now and produce 100 megawatts of electricity.
In Ontario, energy-from-waste plants like Emerald are gaining popularity as an antidote to landfills, which can leach pollutants into ground water and produce methane gas, one of the most potent contributors to climate change.
But burning waste releases carbon dioxide as well as hazardous pollutants, and some experts say the technology is not a viable solution for keeping garbage out of landfills.
Peel Region expressed concerns about the Emerald expansion to the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks in a letter last May.
In the letter, Peel said the expansion would result in some air pollutants from the plant exceeding regulatory limits in an area of Brampton where air quality is already compromised, with residents in nearby communities already having higher rates of chronic lung conditions or heart disease.
Some of those pollutants are “persistent and bio accumulative,” wrote Nando Iannicca, regional chair and CEO of Peel Region, in the letter, referring to pollutants that accumulate in the environment.
The province approved the plant last April after Emerald provided a streamlined environmental assessments report to the provincial environment ministry, which denied nearly 450 requests from individuals and groups, such as Brampton Environmental Alliance and Environmental Defence, for a full environmental assessment.
Instead, in a letter to Emerald, Todd McCarthy, minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, noted the “potential for increased impacts to the environment and human health from the project” and issued a number of conditions Emerald has to meet.
Those conditions, necessary for the next stage of the approval process, include enhanced monitoring and the use of best-available emission control technologies, according to Peel Public Health.
The health agency said in an email that it “will continue to monitor the approvals process and provide evidence-based inputs to help protect community health.”
Emerald said it will provide those details to the ministry by July.
The provincial environment ministry told the Star in an email that the project “remains subject to strong environmental oversight, including requirements to meet all conditions imposed and obtain all necessary environmental approvals under the Environmental Act.”
In Toronto and Ottawa, staff are assessing energy-from-waste, or EFW, as a long-term waste management strategy. More than 70 per cent of Toronto residents surveyed or polled by the city from May to June of last year said they favoured EFW over landfill.
But incineration is lot more expensive, says an expert.
“It’s an admission of failure that we’re burning all this stuff instead of landfilling it,” said Daniel Hoornweg, a professor of energy and cities at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa. “Because there’s no commensurate environmental benefit. And it’s twice as expensive, which we’re paying for in our tax dollars.”
While opinions may be divided when it comes to incineration versus EFW, what is certain is that Ontario has a garbage problem.
About 13 million tonnes of Ontario’s trash went to landfill in 2024, with nearly 27 per cent of that — 3.44 million tonnes — shipped across the border to landfills in Michigan, Ohio and New York, according to a report by Waste to Resource Ontario, a waste industry association.
Joe Lyng, Emerald’s president, said in an interview with the Star that with the plant’s new capacity, “the idea is that perhaps we could reduce the flow of commercial waste down into the States.”
Currently, the incinerator, which has been privately owned and operated since 1992, burns about 150,000 tonnes a year of nonhazardous garbage from Peel and York, and soon, from Simcoe. There is no secondary sorting of the trash after the waste arrives at the plant.
When the expansion is complete in 2030, the incinerator will be able to burn up to 900,000 tonnes of waste a year. The incineration produces high-temperature heat that is used to turn water into steam to drive a turbine, generating electricity that can power up to 60,000 homes.
However, EFW won’t eliminate the need for a landfill, according to the City of Ottawa.
Ottawa said in an email that a landfill will still be required to dispose of the leftover ash, which Lyng said equals about 20 per cent of the garbage.
The ash can be used as a cover for landfill, said Lyng, or as a replacement for gravel and sand in roadbeds, which is the case in some European countries that have a longer history with EFW facilities.
“Ontario is behind in this technology but frankly, with only two small active plants, it hasn’t been a priority,” said Lyng, referring to Emerald’s plant as well as the Durham York Energy Centre in Courtice, which burns 140,000 tonnes of residential garbage annually and generates up to 20 megawatts of electricity. “We’re hoping to change that with our redeveloped plant.”
Lyng said the plant will provide the community with 60 to 70 good-paying trade jobs, take 30,000 trucks trips off the road, provide electricity to the grid, and could provide heating for a limited number of nearby homes in the future.
“EFW is more expensive than landfill for sure,” said Lyng. “But the benefits that EFW provide are better than landfill.”
The environment ministry said in an email to the Star that it approved Emerald’s plan to expand after the company had “appropriately assessed potential effects to human health and the natural environment” in an environmental screening report that Emerald provided. The ministry said the report had been reviewed by “a multidisciplinary team including engineers, toxicologists, and air quality specialists.”
