"Six Nations to be test site for waste disintegration system"

Six Nations will become the test site for a Nova Scotia based company's waste disintegration system.

Six Nations residents learned last Thursday the system, that does not have ministry of environment approvals in Ontario or Nova Scotia, will begin operating at the landfill site here January 22, 2013.

Nova Scotia-based Kearns Waste Science Group is set to begin operation of its garbage disintegration prototype here for a 150-day trial run.

The company is offering Six Nations a money-back guarantee if the system doesn't work.

Developed in the early 1980s by company owner John Kearns, the technology has only operated a prototype at its Cape Breton, N.S. headquarters.

The technology aims to process household waste through a super-heated disintegration process that leaves behind an ash-like material that can be added to asphalt.

Because he will be testing it on Six Nations and provincial guidelines do not apply here, there will be no Ministry of Environment approval or monitoring of the process.

Six Nations will lease the technology from Kearns at a cost of $480,000, which is coming out of the $1.2 million left over from the $5 million in gaming funds band council spent on a B.C. waste incineration deal that went sour. The band and EnEco Systems are now embroiled in a lawsuit to recover lost Six Nations funds.

A temporary Kearns prototype will be installed at the landfill and if it works, a permanent facility will be installed, said Kearns.

"You're not buying anything," he said. "It's a show of good faith on our part. If it doesn't do what I say it will do, I will return your money."

Kearns company will conduct a "waste audit" to determine the permanent machinery needed to address Six Nations' long-term waste management needs.

"Overall, it's a very clean system," said Kearns.

Six Nations community member Ruby Montour said the product sounded too good to be true and wondered why it hasn't been sold to any other community.

Kearns said, "I thought I explained that twice already, but I will do it again. When we built the 20-tonner it was simply to prove the science. The second one was more elaborate. Then people said, 'that's marvelous, it's hard to believe, but we'll wait until you build a bigger one.'"

Lowell Geddes, Kearns' marketing director, said the company and band council signed a contract guaranteeing it will return Six Nations' deposit if the technology doesn't work as promised.

Kearns said, "We empathize with your concerns. We're more of the guinea pigs than you are."

He said to reward Six Nations for its "bravery" in accepting the technology, the community has the option of becoming the site of a future manufacturing facility for the product, creating jobs for the local residents.