What’s the Future of Toronto’s Trash?

Toronto is a big city that makes a lot of garbage. According to this municipal website, Toronto sent approximately 750,100 tonnes of waste to a Michigan landfill site in 2005.

In 2005, an average of 86 truck loads of Toronto’s garbage was transported 500 plus miles (round trip) into Michigan everyday – the only good news is that this amount was down from an all time high of 142 trucks a day in 2003.

TRASH COLLECTION DAY IN TORONTO

Fuel Ghoul can see the bins at the base of the apartment buildings along Jameson Ave. and below the towers on Trethway and at Jane and Eglington Avenue – these giant black industrial bins are usually overflowing with garbage by the weekend, and are heaped high by the time they are collected midweek. The low income residents of these low rent apartment buildings do not recycle their trash – and they eat a lot of fast food in Styrofoam containers and drink water out of small plastic bottle and then dispose of everything in their household garbage. They indiscriminately dispose of all plastics, newspapers and aluminum cans without giving any thought to recycling the goods as that would mean carrying the items downstairs and sorting them into the appropriate bins.

ALUMINUM CANS are the most profitable component of any modern recycling program- they simply must be recycled. Did you know that 95% less energy is used to make new aluminum cans out of old recycled cans? Throwing away a single aluminum can is like pouring out six ounces of gasoline.

Today, sending more of Toronto's trash to Michigan is not an option. Two US Senators recently brokered a deal to plug the hole and stop the flow.

The deal calls for waste shipments to be reduced by 20 per cent by the end of 2007, by 40 per cent by the end of 2008 and then fully eliminated by the end of 2010. Earlier this year, the government streamlined the environmental approval processes to allow dumps to be built faster.

Toronto and neighboring municipalities have developed a plan.

Toronto has an effective garbage plan designed to punish big polluters in the pocketbook. At the June 20, 2007 City Council meeting, Councilors approved a new plan to achieve 70% diversion from landfill by 2010. The plan includes a new funding system to pay for the additional programs and services.

New Garbage Cans and Custom

IN 2007 city council will be distributing new garbage cans while promoting a new waste disposal system.
The new plan is simply that every household will buy a new trash bin. The smallest size (about one and a half garbage bags every two weeks) is free. Larger bins are more expensive. Any solid waste that can't be fit into the containers will cost residents approximately $2.00 per bag extra upon collection.

Here's how it breaks down,

75-litre (one bag) - less than $209
(no charge on bill)

120-litre (1.5 bags) - approximately $250
($250 minus $209 = $41 on bill)

240-litre (3 bags) - approximately $310
($310 minus $209 = $101 on bill)

360-litre (4.5 bags) - approximately $360
($360 minus $209 = $151 on bill)

 

Fuel Ghoul believes the City of Toronto will be sending each resident four free passes in the mail.  READ MORE  Fuel Ghoul loves the idea and supports the new Toronto trash plan!

RECYCLING WORKS

75% less energy and 50% less water is used to make paper from recycled paper versus raw wood fiber. Recycling one tonne of old newspapers saves 19 trees. Toronto typically recycles 100,000 tonnes of newspapers annually; the city's recycling program saves more than two million trees annually.

30% less energy is used to make glass from recycled crushed glass cullet versus new resources.

74% energy reduction is achieved by reusing steel cans and every tonne of recycled steel cans saves 1.36 tonnes of iron ore.

 
A 33% energy reduction is seen when new products are made from recyclable plastics.

In 2007 polluters should be more aware of the trash they create and the trek that trash makes everyday - the transport of trash is tragedy.

Fuel Ghoul still says : Reduce Reuse and Recycle