December 1, 1999

 WORKS COMMITTEE:

The Works Committee on December 1, 1999, had before it a report (November 15, 1999) from the Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services responding to a request from the Committee to report on a proposal for a pilot wet/dry collection project in conjunction with the Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility; advising that such a facility is designed to process a mixed waste stream, a source-separated organics stream and a wet stream of a wet/dry system, and that once the mixed waste processing test is near completion, a further report will be submitted to the Committee in early 2001 on the results of this first phase and on specific plans for the three-stream and wet/dry pilots; and recommending that this report be received for information.

The Committee:

(1)deferred consideration of the aforementioned report and following motion until its next meeting, scheduled to be held on January 12, 2000:

Moved by Councillor Layton:

"That the source-separated organics pilot project proceed first"; and

(2)requested the Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services to submit a report to such meeting on:

(i)a breakdown of the estimated costs for the project; and

(ii)the volume of mixed waste and source-separated organic tonnage that can be handled by the pilot facility and by the expanded facility.

City Clerk

Trudy Perrin/es.19

c:Councillor Jack Layton

General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services

  STAFF REPORT

From:

Subject:Pilot Wet/Dry Collection Project in Conjunction with the Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility.

Purpose:

Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

There are no financial implications arising from this report.

 :

It is recommended that this report be received for information.

 Background:

At its meeting of July 14, 1999, the Works Committee had before it a report entitled "Toronto's Integrated Solid Waste Resource Management Process Request for Expressions of Interest - Results of Application of Evaluation Criteria." One of the motions made by the committee was to request the Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services to report back with "a proposal for a pilot wet/dry collection project in conjunction with the demonstration composter/mixed waste processing plant."

 Comments:

 The Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility which is being constructed at the Dufferin Transfer Station is scheduled to be operational by the Summer/Fall 2000. The facility is designed to process a mixed waste stream, the wet stream of a wet/dry system or a source separated organics stream. We plan to operate the facility on a mixed waste stream initially, since this presents the most challenges in terms of material recovery.

The material for the mixed waste test may be sourced from apartment buildings and commercial locations. The test will occur in conjunction with the existing Blue Box program. Thus, the mixed waste will be made up of items that end up in the garbage after recycling, including recyclable material that is not put into the Blue Box. Participants would be setting out recyclables and waste. Only the waste portion would be collected for processing at the Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility. The Blue Box materials would be collected as usual and delivered to a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) for processing. Once the testing of the mixed waste operational mode is complete we plan to test both source separated organics and wet stream processing.

The material for the source separated organics waste test may be sourced from single family households and commercial locations. This would involve a three-stream collection where residents and/or businesses separate their organic waste from other waste and recylables. Thus, participants would be setting out recyclables, organic materials and any remaining waste. Only the organic waste component would be processed at the Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility. The Blue Box material and regular garbage would be collected and processed as usual.

We are also planning on implementing a wet/dry pilot involving single-family households. A wet/dry system is a two-stream system, which is an alternative system to the Blue Box program. Waste is sorted into two categories: wet and dry. The wet waste component would include items such as kitchen, bathroom and other wastes which can be composted, including heavily soiled or dirty items. This includes food scraps, dirty tissues, houseplants, sanitary items and diapers.

The dry waste would include items such as: recyclables and non-recyclables like metal cans, glass bottles, plastics, paper, broken dishes, toothpaste tubes, chip bags and furnace filters. Dry wastes are processed to recover recyclables.

The wet waste component would be processed at the Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility. However, the facility is not set up for processing the dry stream and alternate arrangements would have to be made, such as shipping the material to Guelph for processing at their wet/dry facility.

Conclusions:

The Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing facility is designed to process a mixed waste stream, a source separated organics stream and a wet stream of a wet/dry system.

Once the mixed waste processing test is near completion, we will report further to Works Committee (in early 2001) on the results of this first phase and on specific plans for the three-stream and wet/dry pilots.

Contact:

Renee Dello

Senior Analyst - Waste Diversion Planning

Solid Waste Management Services

Works and Emergency Services

Metro Hall, 19^th Floor

Phone: 392-5806

Fax: 392-4754

E-mail: rdello@toronto.ca

General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services

Commissioner, Works and Emergency Services

RD:RS

(wetdry)

 STAFF REPORT

To: Works Committee

From: Barry H. Gutteridge, Commissioner, Works and Emergency Services

Subject:Source Separated Organics Pilot Project In Conjunction with the Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility.

Purpose:

To respond to a request from the Works Committee to report on a proposal for a pilot wet/dry collection project in conjunction with the Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility.

Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

There are no financial implications at this time. Should Council decide to proceed with a source separated organics pilot project in 2000, approximately $140,000 will need to be added to the 2000 operating budget in addition to the $200,000 already included.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that mixed waste processing proceed as the first phase of testing at the Dufferin Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility to allow finalization of the Toronto Integrated Resource Management (TIRM) Diversion process to proceed with minimal potential delay.

Background:

At its meeting of December 1, 1999, the Works Committee had before it a report entitled "Pilot Wet/Dry Collection Project in Conjunction with the Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility." The report was deferred to the January 12, 2000 meeting and a motion was made "that the source-separated organics pilot project proceed first." It was requested that the Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services submit a report on:

"i) the estimated costs and what they are for; and

ii)the costs for volume of mixed waste and source-separated organic tonnage that can be handled by the pilot facility and by the expanded facility."

Comments:

The Mixed Waste Recycling and Organics Processing Facility which is being constructed at the Dufferin Transfer Station (the Dufferin Facility) is scheduled to be operational by late Fall 2000.

The original objectives for constructing this small scale facility were to test both mixed waste processing and source separated organics processing before constructing additional waste processing capacity. The priority is to test the viability of processing residual mixed waste (after recycling) from apartment buildings to assess diversion levels and end product quality.

Multi-family (apartment) dwellings account for about 30 percent (230,000 tonnes) of the residential waste collected annually across the City. The recycling rate for apartment dwellings is quite low at 9 per cent as compared to the rate of 36 per cent for single family dwellings. This is due to the number of challenges to increasing the recycling participation in apartment buildings. By processing the mixed waste stream from apartments we would be able to capture additional recyclables as well as the organics stream. Processing of mixed waste from apartment dwellings is a key element of our strategy to achieve 50 percent waste diversion.

Municipally collected commercial waste accounts for about 100,000 tonnes of the City's total waste collected annually. A number of commercial areas receiving City collection generate high quantities of organics. Collecting their mixed solid waste for processing at the facility would allow us to capture and divert high quantities of organics while circumventing the problems of extra collections, storage issues, equipment, and promotional and educational communication costs.

If the Dufferin Mixed Waste Processing Pilot is successful, the City will have a major opportunity to deal with the combined municipally collected commercial and apartment volumes of waste (330,000 tonnes). Staff planned thus to proceed with mixed waste processing first at the Dufferin Facility.

With Council's direction to proceed with a Request for Proposals for Proven Waste Diversion Capacity under the (TIRM) process, we will now be awarding a contract for a second facility close to the time that the evaluation of the small scale facility is being completed. To delay implementation of the mixed waste pilot would necessitate a corresponding delay in finalizing contracts for diversion to ensure that the mixed waste process is fully feasible as one of the diversion solutions.

With respect to the question about the volume and the associated cost of mixed waste and source separated organics that can be handled by the Dufferin facility, it is designed to process 15,000 tonnes per year of a mixed waste stream at a total annual operating cost of $960,805 (approx. $64.00/tonne based on 15,000 tonnes per year) or 25,000 tonnes of source separated organics at a total annual operating cost of $870,061 ($34.80/tonne based on 25,000 tonnes per year). If expanded, the facility could process up to 100,000 tonnes of mixed waste or 165,000 tonnes of source separated organic material. Operating costs for the expanded plant have yet to be negotiated. The facility is designed to divert 70% of mixed waste and 90% of organic waste.

Conclusions:

It is recommended that we proceed with mixed waste processing as the first phase of testing at the Dufferin facility for approximately six months, followed by a source separated organics pilot project as the second phase of testing. This will provide adequate information on the mixed waste diversion process to allow a final decision to be reached on the TIRM diversion solutions.

Contact:

Andrew Pollock

Director, Policy and Planning

Solid Waste Management Services

Works and Emergency Services

Metro Hall 19^th Floor

Telephone: (416) 392-4715

Fax: (416) 392-4754

E-mail: apollo@toronto.ca

General Manager

Solid Waste Management Services

Commissioner, Works and Emergency Services

CAP/rd/source separated organics