Waste disposal is a huge challenge for municipalities, industries, and businesses. It’s expensive and time consuming to collect millions of tonnes of trash every year, and there are risks to the environment no matter how we dispose of it.
The ideal situation is to create no waste, but that’s difficult to do. In Ontario, we produce about 13 million tonnes a year.
The next best solution is to divert waste, through reuse and recycling. Ontarians diverted about 3 million tonnes of garbage in 2005, and communities’ diversion rates are increasing.
The remaining waste has to be disposed, and the two most common ways to dispose waste are landfilling and incineration.
- What are landfills?
- How do garbage and landfills affect my health and the environment?
- What are incinerators?
- What is recycling?
- What can I recycle?
- What is the deposit return program?
- What is composting?
- Information and Resources
What are landfills?
Although Ontarians diverted about 3 million tonnes of waste (in 2005) through the 3Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle – disposal is still a necessary component of waste management.
A landfill is a site where waste materials are buried. Landfills are one of the oldest ways of managing waste. Modern landfills in Ontario are designed to manage the risks to the environment that exist when a lot of garbage is piled up in one spot.
- About 3.3 million tonnes of this waste was diverted through the 3Rs program.
- Approximately 10 million tonnes of municipal and IC&I waste generated was disposed through landfill or incineration.
- Around 6 million tonnes of this waste or 60 per cent was managed in Ontario.
- 4 million tonnes of waste were exported to the U.S., with 90 per cent of this waste being sent to Michigan landfills.
How do garbage and landfills affect my health and the environment?
The biggest problem with garbage is that it never really goes away. You drop it at the curb and it disappears. But that doesn't mean that it is not a problem anymore. It has to go somewhere.
Garbage trucks take it to a local landfill or if you live in a large urban area, to a local waste transfer station. At the transfer station it gets loaded onto even bigger trucks before it’s hauled – sometimes for many kilometers – to a landfill where it is piled up with everyone else's trash. Truckload after truckload. Week after week. Year after year.
Once the garbage gets to the landfill it is dumped and eventually covered by a layer of dirt. Some of it decomposes over time. Moisture and water can filter through the waste, picking up metals, minerals, organic chemicals, bacteria, viruses and other toxic materials. This contaminated water is called leachate. If the leachate is not contained, it can travel from the site and contaminate our ground and surface water.
Modern landfills are engineered to meet strict rules and standards to collect and treat leachate.
Decomposing garbage produces two odourless greenhouses gases: carbon dioxide and methane, which is highly flammable. At many big landfill sites in Canada, methane is now being collected and burned to produce energy.
What are incinerators?
Incinerators are sometimes used to burn waste under carefully controlled conditions. They are an acceptable form of disposal, but they are not a perfect solution either. The ashes must be disposed of either at a landfill, or if they are toxic, at a hazardous waste facility. Burning garbage also produces acid gases, carbon dioxide and toxic chemicals that must be treated with expensive air pollution control equipment to avoid contributing to acid rain, ozone depletion and air pollution.
Energy-from-waste facilities are incinerators which burn garbage to create electricity. The electricity is eventually sold to homes and businesses. Burning garbage in incinerators is a common practice throughout the world. Ontario currently has just one energy-from-waste facility.What is recycling?
We’re recycling pioneers. Ontario is the birthplace of the Blue Box, a program that has received international recognition and is a model for recycling programs in many countries. The Blue Box was piloted in Kitchener, Ontario, in 1981.
Recycling is the reprocessing of materials into new products. Recycling prevents useful material resources from being wasted, reduces the consumption of raw materials and reduces energy usage and therefore, greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling reduces the volume of garbage that we send to disposal.
The Blue Box kept more than 860,000 tonnes of useful materials out of landfills in 2005. Recycled quantities have been increasing steadily since 1987Presently, more than 4.8 million households across Ontario have access to recycling. This represents 99 per cent of the Ontario population in over 400 municipalities.
What can I recycle?
Most things can be recycled, although not in every municipality. You can recycle newspapers, cardboard, plastic, aluminium, steel, glass, and polystyrene, to name just a few.
Many municipalities recycle a lot more. Read your municipal Blue Box and waste calendar if one is available, or call your Town Hall for a complete list of what is recycled in your area.
Many municipalities also let people bring things to a special depot that they shouldn’t put in their regular garbage, or offer special collection programs. These are things like old furniture, mattresses, appliances, and other products. The municipality ensures that these are then safely disposed of, or recycled.
What is the deposit return program?
In February 2007, Ontarians started paying a deposit of 10¢ or 20¢ on alcohol containers bought at the Liquor Store and wineries. They receive a full refund when they return the containers to The Beer Store.
The Bag It Back program is meant to encourage people to return alcohol containers for recycling. Prior to the program, only 68% of these containers were ending up in the Blue Box. Sometimes the glass was broken and colours were mixed making it difficult to recycle.
If everyone participates, we could keep another 80 million bottles out of landfills and turn them into high end products like new glass bottles, glazes for ceramic tiles and insulation.
For more information on the Bag It Back program:
- www.bagitback.ca
- News Release: Ontario Goes Greener By Bagging It Back
- Backgrounder: Reducing Landfill Waste In Ontario
- Fact Sheet: Ontario Deposit Return Program
What is composting?
Food and plant materials (called ‘organics’) decompose to make compost, an earthy, dark, crumbly substance that adds much needed nutrients to garden soil and lawns. It is a wonderful way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes.
Organic materials make up as much as one third of the waste we throw out. That’s why it’s so critical to keep them out of the garbage.
Many municipalities have ‘green bin’ programs for household organics. Make sure you follow the directions carefully. If your municipality doesn’t have curbside collection of organics, consider buying a backyard composter for your kitchen and yard waste.
Check out the MOE’s My Environment composting section for great tips on how to start making your own compost.
Information and Resources
Find out more about waste diversion, recycling and composting in Ontario.
Fact Sheet: Waste Diversion Ontario
Waste Diversion Ontario
Green Tips: Vermicomposting
Green Tips: Six Good Reasons to Grasscycle
Stewardship Ontario
Municipal 3Rs in Ontario: 2001 Fact Sheet
Environment Canada – Composting
Recycling Council of Ontario
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Last modified: August 08 2008.