The Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) made clear its opposition to Metro Vancouver's plan to burn its garbage official Tuesday evening.

The board of directors unanimously agreed that it does not support waste-to-energy incineration as a viable option for handling residual municipal solid waste.

Metro Vancouver is presently engaged in a public consultation process on its draft Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan (ISWMRP). Consultation ends July 14.

In addition to initiatives to reduce and divert waste by 2015, the plan proposes a waste-to-energy (WTE) strategy to annually incinerate 500,000 tonnes of garbage that will not be recycled, composted or otherwise diverted from households, business and industry.

FVRD board members also agreed to support goals in the plan that deal with minimizing waste generation and maximizing reuse, recycling and material recovery in the Greater Vancouver region. The board agreed to provisionally support one goal that deals with energy recovery from the waste stream, and another that all remaining waste is disposed of in landfills, after material recycling and energy recovery.

The provision states that the board does not support energy recovery or handling of municipal solid waste by any form of combustion including, but not limited to, incineration, gasification, pyrolysis, plasma technology, mass burn or any other similar technology for the residual management of municipal solid waste within a waste-to-energy facility.

"We are happy to support the initiatives in the Metro Vancouver plan to divert waste and increase reduction, reuse and recycling," said board chair Patricia Ross in a press release issued Wedneday. "The Fraser Valley is home to a unique and sensitive airshed. We simply cannot support a strategy that involves the ongoing need to supply incinerators with waste, the uncertainty regarding the contaminants that would be discharged and the potential effects on human health and the environment in the Lower Fraser Valley."

Ross and the board encouraged residents to learn about WTE and its impacts and make their views known to Metro.

The FVRD recently developed a website to provide residents with information about regional air quality at www.airqualitymatters.ca. A Facebook page entitled Air Quality Matters has also been set up, as has a Twitter account "to provide information and create a platform for public discussion about the importance of clean air."