Environmental Performance
A significant part of Plasco’s philosophy is a commitment to using the best available technologies to minimize our facilities’ environmental footprint and to have an environmental performance that far exceeds regulatory standards.
Greenhouse Gas Reductions
Processing waste through the Plasco Conversion System reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in two ways. First, it eliminates the methane that would form if the waste were landfilled – this is significant since methane has a global warming potential 23 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). Second, power generated from our process displaces power from other sources such as coal. The result is that a Plasco Facility reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Air Emissions Performance
In a Plasco Facility, the air emissions are associated with ultra-low engine exhaust from generating electricity. Plasco has invested in the best available gas cleaning technologies to ensure that the syngas is clean prior to delivering it to the engines.
Plasco is committed to going beyond compliance. Below is Plasco’s emission profile. The ‘Plasco Enforcement Limit’ column represents the emission limits that Plasco proposes to be regulated against regardless of whether a jurisdiction has less strict standards. The ‘Plasco Target’ column illustrates the limits Plasco is committed to meet and continue to work towards.
| Parameter | Units | Ontario (Plasco Regulation) |
BC | US EPA 40 CFR 60 Eb | EU | Plasco Enforcement Limit | Plasco Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Particulate Matter | mg/m3 | 12 | 19 | 14 | 9 |
9 |
3 |
| Organic Matter | mg/m3 | 49 | 39 | - | 9 |
9 |
7 |
| Hydrogen Chloride (HCl) | mg/m3 | 19 | 69 | 27 | 9 |
9 |
2 |
| Sulphur dioxide (SO2) | mg/m3 | 37 | 246 | 56 | 46 |
37 |
11 |
| NOx expressed as NO2 | mg/m3 | 207 | 344 | 202 | 183 |
13 |
9 |
| Carbon monoxide (CO) | mg/m3 | - | 55 | 42 | 47 |
34 |
34 |
| Mercury (Hg) | mg/m3 | 0.020 | 0.19 | 0.035 | 0.046 |
0.005 |
0.0005 |
| Cadmium (Cd) | mg/m3 | 0.014 | 0.10 | 0.007 | 0.046 |
0.007 |
0.001 |
| Lead | mg/m3 | 0.142 | 0.049 | 0.098 | - |
0.02 |
0.012 |
| Dioxins and furans | ng/m3 | 0.040 | 0.5 | 9 | 0.9 |
0.01 |
0 |
What about the other 5%?
While most jurisdictions require that hazardous waste like batteries and thermometers, be disposed of in controlled facilities, these heavy metals still enter the primary waste stream and unfortunately end up in landfills and incinerators. In a conventional landfill these substances would slowly poison our land and water system.
The Plasco Conversion System removes these hazardous substances that enter the waste stream and sends them for controlled disposal in a hazardous waste facility. With a typical North American municipal waste stream, the total heavy metals sent for disposal — including the activated carbon screen they are caught in — amount to about 5% of the waste that Plasco processes. The other 95% of the waste is converted into electricity and other saleable products.
It is important to note that these metals are not created by the Plasco Conversion System but are captured by the system to permit safe disposal.
Distributed Clean Power
Areas that generate large amounts of waste are typically areas that consume large amounts of electricity. Locating our facilities close to where waste is created also has the benefit of generating electricity where it is needed. This means that it can be transmitted and consumed over the local network instead of being imported long distances on the already burdened transmission lines. This is a problem faced by traditional technologies and even with renewable sources like wind and hydro. Transmission over long distances can waste up to 10% due to transmission line loss. Distributed power generation also helps strengthen the power system by adding local supply and minimizing outages. By distributing facilities across a city, Plasco is also able to minimize truck traffic and road congestion.