Metro Vancouver’s board of directors passed a waste management plan today, approving a new garbage incinerator, but where exactly it will be remains to be seen.

The regional government is saying the plan will reduce waste and generate energy.

The plan aims to reduce garbage, reuse and recycle as much as possible, burn the leftover waste and put the remains in a landfill.

“This has been a long, complex and sometimes fractious process, but I am confident that we have made the right decision,” said Metro Vancouver board chair Lois Jackson. “In our extensive consultations on the new plan, we heard virtually unanimous support for our waste reduction goals and the actions needed to achieve them.”

Jackson went on to say picking incineration as the preferred disposal option was more controversial.

“But in the end, the science was clear – from an economic, environmental and social perspective, additional waste-to-energy capacity is the best choice,” she said.

It includes per capita waste generation targets and sets waste diversion targets (to reduce the amount of garbage going in the landfill) of 70 per cent by 2015 and 80 per cent by 2020. Metro Vancouver’s current diversion rate is 55 per cent, while the Canadian average is 22 per cent.

The plan includes measures that will ban all wood and compostable waste from disposal, increase recycling in multi-family residences and on-job sites and enhance existing recycling and reuse programs.

Metro Vancouver has to wait for the provincial government to approve the plan before soliciting proposals to have the incinerator built.

Jackson also pointed to Burnaby’s garbage incinerator, which has been around for roughly 20 years and generates $10 million in annual energy sales from electricity and steam.