For Immediate Release
November 2, 2012

Toronto: A new report shows how Toronto City Council can get to 80% waste diversion to help the environment, create jobs and increase the life of Toronto’s landfill site.

“Torontonians love waste diversion,” said Emily Alfred, Waste Campaigner with the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA). “Yet we only divert 50% of our garbage because we don’t have the tools to divert more. This report shows what City Hall can do to help Torontonians get our diversion rate up to 80% and create over 1,600 new green jobs.”

“For the last couple of years, City Hall has dropped the ball on waste diversion. That means we’ve been sending more garbage to our landfill site, near London, Ontario, than we should have,” said Alfred. “If we don’t divert more, we’re going to have to start the long and expensive search for a new landfill site sooner than expected. And that is bad news for the environment and our budgets.”

The report, titled Leaping to 80: A Plan for City Hall to Help Torontonians Improve Divert More Waste, provides a blueprint for what the City can do to help Torontonians divert 80% of our waste, 10% higher than the City’s current target of 70%.

Key recommendations include:

• • • Getting green bins into apartment buildings as quickly as possible and providing city support for building managers and residents;
  • • Building more city-run compost facilities to handle the increase in green bin organics;
  • • Building a mixed waste facility at the city’s Green Lane landfill site to remove any compost and recyclables that end up in garbage bags;
  • • Offering more city diversion services to city businesses, most of whom divert very little waste from landfill.

“We hope City Councillors will study this report before next Wednesday, when the city’s waste budget is released,” said Alfred. “Then, we hope Councillors will make sure they invest in the waste diversion tools identified in this report. Otherwise, Torontonians should get ready for an expensive and divisive search for new, environmentally damaging disposal capacity.”

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For more information contact: Emily Alfred, Waste Campaigner, TEA