Did you Know your Municipal Government has no say on Where your Waste ends up

 Industrial, commercial, and institutional waste in Ontario, contrary to perception, is not something controlled by the province nor by any municipal government.

Instead, the private businesses creating this industrial or commercial waste are the only ones overseeing where their garbage is shipped. As long as it’s an approved location, private businesses can largely move their waste to wherever they so choose. With virtually no say over where waste ends up in Ontario, this has created at least a half-dozen problematic scenarios in regions across the province.

As waste accumulates, what once were picturesque small town communities may begin to see their appeal run out. According to a statement from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Ontario requires an additional sixteen landfills within the next three decades if it’s going to keep on track with managing its waste. Where those Ontario landfills will go and/or whether there will be expansions on existing sites is unknown.

There exists small towns in the greater vicinity of hubs such as Toronto that are being pegged for new landfill sites. Should these sites be approved, that could mean literally dumping hundreds of thousands of tonnes of trash into otherwise beautiful regions of Ontario, completing destroying the natural ecosystem there.

This highlights one of the major problems with waste management in Ontario. It’s something that, as a Toronto waste management company, we face almost every day. The province has strict rules on residential recycling and residential garbage being driven out to landfills. The province and the cities therein have few regulations guiding waste coming from industrial, commercial, or institutional producers, which is where the vast majority of waste in Ontario is produced. As industrial, commercial, and institutional waste producers continue with few regulations guiding them, this comes at the sacrifice of smaller communities who don’t necessarily have the power to fight against the creation of landfills in their locality.

Though it can be argued no one wants a landfill immediately next to their property or even nearby, if Ontario does not do something to better regulate waste production in the aforementioned sector, there won’t be a choice. As a province, 7 million tonnes of business and industrial waste is generated every year. Though some members of government are beginning to put forth arguments in favor of further waste regulation on commercial, industrial, and institutional producers, nothing has been set in stone yet.

Last year, the provincial government passed the Waste Free Ontario Act, which committed to imposing new regulations that would prevent private businesses from shipping their waste to landfills. The Ontario government has yet to move forward with the creation of these rules or regulations, and with a new government in town, it’s unclear what the reality will be.

The incoming provincial Conservative government has “promised municipalities more control over potential landfill locations”. Though this is a positive, there’s also no ongoing plan to reduce waste in the province as a whole nor to reduce the commercial, industrial, or institutional waste being carted off to landfills across Ontario.

Estimates suggest that as much as 75 percent of the waste generated by corporations, small businesses, and institutions across the province end up in our landfills. Needless to say, there’s a lot to be done in waste management, recycling, and improving our provincial numbers. As we look ahead to a new era in provincial politics with a new government, we hope there is more leadership on this point.