One piece of information council didn’t have on the Plasco contract until today was a consultant’s report on waste-to-energy technologies. There was some regret by city manager Kent Kirkpatrick and environment committee chairwoman Maria McRae that they didn’t provide the report earlier.

The consultant, Stantec, discovered there are two identifiable providers of plasma arc gasification of garbage: Plasco Energy Group and Alter NRG, whose Westinghouse Plasma Corp. has been running plants in Japan for municipal waste since 2002.

Stantec found no one in North America and Europe currently running a plasma gasification plant for commercial use, making Plasco the first to enter this market.

The city’s lawyers have given the green light to the sole-source procurement of the Plasco technology because, as they say, there is only one acceptable and cost-effective supplier and there is no alternative. That is also to say, Plasco has demonstrated the technology in Ottawa and the province has signed off on the environmental results.

Coun. Diane Deans asked city management what the harm is in inviting waste-to-energy bids in a competition. Kirkpatrick said the key is Plasco has found a way to apply plasma gasification to unsorted municipal waste (right off the back of the garbage truck). On top of that, Plasco is willing to foot the entire cost of a $150-$200-million plant. Kirkpatrick stressed that the deal before council is even better than what the city would have achieved if it held a competition. Plasco would no doubt be the winner of any competition anyway, he suggested.

There clearly is a big interest at City Hall to show it can lead the way in the green energy sector. I’m not sure this was the greatest comparison, but a city economic development staffer said Plasco has the potential to be the “next Nortel of the clean technology sector.”

So, it’s a matter of trust, which is probably why McRae asked Kirkpatrick at the end of today’s committee meeting pointblank if he believed this is the best deal for the city. I believe his words were, Plasco could “blow the doors” of the sector if it’s successful.

Last vote goes to council Wednesday.

As described by Plasco:

Plasco CEO Rod Bryden uses the incineration program in Durham Region as a frequent point of comparison with the gasification plant proposed in Ottawa. Here are numbers Plasco provides in its presentation:

Anyone who buys a lot of meat from the supermarket knows it’s a pain to fit all the styrofoam containers in the kitchen trash. Wouldn’t it be great to just rinse the containers off and toss them in the blue bin?

In an email to council today, environment committee chairwoman Maria McRae says the residential recycling collection contract expires in 2013 and a request for proposals in 2012 will ask for bids that include the ability to recycle styrofoam and thin plastic film, which I imagine would include plastic grocery bags.

McRae sent the email ahead of tomorrow’s committee meeting on the Plasco contract. McRae wants council to know that if the city signs a long-term deal with Plasco, it won’t turn its back on recycling programs. She also tells council the city wants to expand the green bin program in more schools and “two large commercial entities.”

Tomorrow the environment committee meets to debate the proposed 20-year contract with Plasco Energy Group. There’s a real sense around council to just get on with it after six years of wait-and-see. It reminds me of how council views the light rail project and the Lansdowne Park redevelopment.

Mayor Jim Watson has thrown his support behind the agreement, which can only mean councillors will ultimately follow suit.

Still, councillors I have spoken with over the past week have their reservations. The length of the deal has some uneasy, mainly because the Orgaworld 20-year contract brings unrealistic expectations for the city in the short term. Others want to make sure the contract is open to public scrutiny, but those concerns were alleviated when committee chairwoman Maria McRae last week said the document will be available. One councillor I spoke with Friday isn’t convinced the deal has to be approved so quickly.

Critics outside council are lining up to question the deal.

This morning, council received an email co-signed by several organizations, including the Sierra Club of Canada, asking the city to vote down the deal. Ecology Ottawa on Thursday sent council a letter asking to delay the vote until the city’s long-term waste management strategy is complete.

It could be a long meeting tomorrow and I expect several councillors who don’t sit on the committee to be there questioning city manager Kent Kirkpatrick and Plasco CEO Rod Bryden.