There is a smarter way of tapping into the potential for waste to ‘pay its own way’ by generating valuable heat and clean fuel.  Integrated waste recovery systems, built into all municipal waste treatment facilities, hold the key by helping us recover water, heat and biofuels from linked waste streams.

In addition, we can combine our liquid and solid organic waste  to produce even more of these needed products.  Our waste can be converted from ‘waste-sinks’ to ‘wealth generators’. These systems help close the loop on waste, unleashing clean fuel and heat that can be sold back to the system.

Sewage treatment plants designed for resource recovery – which are often  made up of many small plants rather than one or two large ones -  are less expensive to build and operate (because they are more compact, and require less electricity and chemicals) than traditional aerobic plants.

It’s time to catch up. Other cities, such as Gothenburg, Sweden, have been doing this for years. They’ve been saving money, cutting back on air and water pollution, generating bio-fuel to power local buses and trucks and extracting enough heat to warm up hundreds of homes - all through smart, integrated approaches to liquid waste resource recovery.

The BC public is more than ready.  According to a January 2006 Environics poll, 86% of residents in the Capital Regional District support the idea.