Incineration of garbage the only practical solution for Iqaluit

For years, Iqaluit has agonized over waste disposal. As the community has grown, waste has gone from a minor concern to a major crisis.

Burn it, don’t burn it, create another dump — and so it goes, years and years of unsatisfactory solutions. The problem persists and Iqaluit has become what has to be the most polluted, disgusting, filthy community in all of the North and perhaps all of Canada.

We guardians of the Arctic has a huge responsibility. It is incumbent upon us to ensure that we cannot continue to pollute as we are doing and have been doing for some years. The recent crisis, the burning of the dump, and problems that it created were a wake-up call.

Do something. This burning dump issue was not limited to Iqaluit. Rankin Inlet, Kuujjuaq and several other communities experienced fires that interfered with the operation of airports.

During a recent visit to a manufacturer of incinerators in England, I met with the directors of INCINER8. This award-winning company received the Queen’s award for designing, building and exporting incinerators to many countries all over the world, including Canada.

Their simple, economic and efficient product is in my opinion the ideal way for this community to solve this agonizing problem. Iqaluit is not unique. Every community in Nunavut and for that matter Nunavik have similar problems.

I have been informed that no community in Nunavut has been granted a water licence. This is because in most places the waste disposal systems do not meet proper standards and interfere with the water supply.

Incineration, using modern technology, can relieve northern communities from this age-old problem once and for all. It is incumbent upon the Government of Nunavut to ensure that this vast area of Canada is kept clean so they may live in harmony with the land that they have inherited.

It should not be polluted with garbage, plastic bags, bottles and every known form of disgusting matter strewn across the Arctic. The state of California recently banned the use of plastic shopping bags, period, throwing retailers into a huge dilemma.

During my last term as mayor of Iqaluit, the administration looked into the matter of incineration. The systems that were examined at that time in the 1980s were complicated, mechanical, huge, and required vast amounts of maintenance, to say nothing of the cost.

The INCINER8 system that I saw in the U.K. has no mechanical moving parts, other than the ignition burners that start the process. There is no smoke, only heat at the end of the burn. All that remains of the garbage is a small amount of ash that can be placed in a small landfill.

Garbage thrown into a landfill in the Arctic will be frozen and preserved for millennia. We have learned the hard way.

Incineration is the only practical solution. Iqaluit City Council has been made aware of INCINER8 and is prepared to look into the matter.

We can, with a little effort, show that this community cares about its appearance. Iqaluit could lead the way across the North. We can show the rest of Canada and the world that we take our responsibility seriously. As the guardians of the sovereignty of Canada, the people of Nunavut do care and are prepared to keep the Arctic clean.

Bryan Pearson
Iqaluit

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