Facts about Toronto's trash
Updated: July 12, 2011
Recent initiatives
- Separate collection of unwanted electronics for recycling is now available to all single-residential households and multi-residential buildings in the City.
- In-unit recycling containers have been provided to multi-unit residences to increase the recovery of recyclable material.
- A reuse centre is currently in operation to process durable goods for reuse, recycling and disassembly. Such select durable household goods as mattresses and large plastic items are collected by dedicated trucks and sent to customers for recycling.
- Effective in 2008 (July 1, for multi-residential buildings/November 1 for single-residential homes), the City introduced a Solid Waste Management Rate based directly on the volume of garbage set out for collection and disposal. It is modeled after other utilities like water, electricity and natural gas. Linking costs to volume of garbage means residents who reduce garbage pay less. Revenue generated from the rate helps fund the City’s residential waste management costs including new waste diversion programs.
- The financing model, implemented through the Solid Waste Management Rate, removes the dependence of Solid Waste Management Services on property taxes through the creation of a joint water and waste utility bill.
- Since June 1, 2009, a City bylaw mandates retailers to charge a minimum of five cents for each carry-out plastic shopping bag requested by customers to prompt the switch to reusable bags/containers. Since June 1, 2010, all carry-out retail plastic shopping bags must be compatible with Toronto’s recycling program.
- Implementation of door-to-door, curbside collection, Blue Bin recycling and Green Bin collection from townhouses including the purchase of smaller collection vehicles to service these customers is complete.
- Roll-out of source separated organics (Green Bin) collection to apartments is underway. Approximately 8% of multi-residential buildings (324 buildings/66,000 units) now have Green Bin collection.
- Since September 2010, residents set out metal items (e.g. appliances such as fridges, stoves, dishwashers, etc.) without making a collection appointment for free pick-up and recycling.
Solid Waste Management Services has the following facilities:
- 7 transfer stations
- 1 landfill
- 1 Material Recovery Facility (MRF) 1 Green Bin processing facility
- 1 Reuse Centre
- 4 collection yards and 1 litter collection yard
- 161 former landfills
- 6 household special waste depots (formerly called Household Hazardous Waste depots)
- 734 vehicles
Current waste diversion statistics
- In 2010, 47% of Toronto’s residential waste was diverted from landfill thanks to the Blue Bin, Green Bin, Yard Waste and other diversion programs as well as the volume based rate structure for waste. This means 380,890 tonnes of garbage was kept off trucks hauling waste to landfill.
- The City’s diversion rate factors in the diversion tonnage achieved by both single-family homes and multi-residential buildings. In 2010, residents living in single-family homes had a diversion rate of 63% and those living in multi-residential buildings achieved a rate of 18%.
- Toronto’s current Residential Waste Diversion Rate information, available on the City’s website, provides a more detailed breakdown of residential waste diversion.
Green Bin organics collection
- The Green Bin organics program, which collects food waste, wet-paper waste, diapers and pet waste from 440,000 single-family homes and 94,500 multi-residential units weekly, is the largest organic waste diversion program on the continent.
- In 2010, the Green Bin program diverted approximately 92,715 tonnes of organic waste from landfill (resulting in 2,727 fewer trucks to Michigan landfill).
- On average, each single-family home on the Green Bin Program sets out approximately 200 kilograms of Green Bin organic waste for collection annually.
- The Green Bin Program has an 87% participation rate.
Blue Bin recycling
- In 2010, Toronto residents recycled 147,236 tonnes of recyclables through the Blue Bin program (resulting in 4,330 fewer trucks to Michigan).
- In 2008, Toronto’s curbside recycling program expanded to include plastic retail shopping bags (no drawstrings, metal detailing or hard plastic handles) and foam polystyrene food and protective packaging (e.g. drinking cups, egg cartons, meat trays, takeout food containers, electronics packaging).
- Toronto residents combine container type recyclables and accepted paper items together in one container for more efficient collection and processing.
- The Blue Bin program has a 94% participation rate.
Landfill disposal
- Toronto’s waste disposal contract with the Carlton Farms Landfill in Michigan expires at the end of 2010.
- Effective April 2, 2007, the City of Toronto became official owners of the Green Lane Landfill Site located in Southwold Township in the County of Elgin, southwest of the City of London, about 200 km from downtown Toronto. The Site features the latest technology including onsite treatment of leachate and a methane gas collection and flaring system.
- The Green Lane Landfill Site is approximately 130 hectares (320 acres in size).
- Green Lane Landfill’s existing permitted capacity will be exhausted by approximately 2025 if current waste diversion initiatives are not expanded; expanding diversion programs to meet a target of 70% diversion will increase the site’s life expectancy to approximately 2033.
- Effective January 1, 2011, all of Toronto’s waste requiring landfill disposal will go to the City-owned Green Lane Landfill site.
- It is projected that approximately 793,000 tonnes of waste will be disposed at Green Lane Landfill in 2011. This includes municipal waste the City collects from residents, commercial establishments, schools and its Agencies, Boards, Commissions and Divisions as well as paid waste from private waste haulers and other municipalities.
Looking into the future
- Solid Waste is currently undertaking a program and policy evaluation of the 70% Waste Diversion Target plan that was approved by Council in 2007 to ascertain the operational, financial and legislative challenges and opportunities associated with the plan.
- By 2013, the landfill gas rate at Green Lane will be sufficient to support approximately 10 megawatts of electricity generation. Over time and with the addition of modular units, Green Lane will be capable of supporting a 16 megawatt generating capacity.
- A new Organic waste processing facility will be built at the Disco Transfer Station and the Dufferin Organic processing facility will be expanded with the addition of a digester. Both facilities will take the City’s source separated organics (SSO) processing capacity up to approximately 130,000 tonnes per year.
- The City is working with Enbridge Gas to clean the biogas coming from the organics processing digesters and feed this gas directly into Enbridge’s distribution network. It is the goal of the City to eventually convert its waste collection fleet to natural gas and recoup from Enbridge an equal volume of gas that the City puts into the distribution network from the digesters.
- The City is actively engaged in pilot projects such as the diversion of mixed plastics and porcelain products from landfill.
- The City is planning the development of a mixed waste processing facility to recover resources from mixed residual waste and create a compost-like material for beneficial application.
- In 2011, given Toronto’s availability of excellent quality and plentiful supply of drinking water, bottled water sold in single-use disposable containers will be banned from City facilities.
Environmental benefits of achieving 70% waste diversion from landfill
- The City’s waste diversion programs help save electricity via energy savings, conserve non-renewable resources, and reduce air/water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
- By achieving 70% diversion, Solid Waste Management Services will reduce its GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions by 155,000 tonnes, which is equal to taking over 25,000 cars off the road.
- CO2 reduction – increased reuse and recycling reduces the eCO2 emissions both from landfills and from the production of new materials.
- Diverting 70% of its waste means Toronto will recycle enough Blue Bin materials to save 640 million kWh (kilowatt hours) of energy annually, which is enough to supply all the electrical needs for 56,000 homes.