Plasco agreement approved

Ottawa – City Council today approved a framework for a long-term waste handling agreement with Plasco and delegated authority to the City Manager and the City Solicitor to execute the arrangement.

The agreement will place the City on the cutting edge of residential waste management by adding a fourth R – recover – to the environmental regime of reduce, reuse and recycle.

“This agreement is a “win-win-win” – for our taxpayers, the environment and our local economy," said Mayor Watson. “Plasco has grown from 8 employees to more than 150 since its inception and they have brought more than $150 million worth of investment to our city and province, while taking all the economic risk to turn our waste into energy.”

Council’s approval of the framework also marks the next logical step in an innovative economic development initiative that has seen the City help to incubate, test, and gain regulatory approval for a Clean-Tech system that has the potential to revolutionize waste management.

Under the agreement, all financial and business risk associated with the launch of a new technology is Plasco’s and the City stands to gain substantially if Plasco proves to be successful in the North American market.

Plasco’s technology converts residential waste that can’t be reused or recycled to gas, which is then burned to create electricity with low emissions. Under the framework, the City will send 109,500 tonnes of residential solid waste to Plasco for processing, creating a net 18 megawatts of power per year and extending the life of the City Trail Road landfill by 28 years from 2042 to 2070.