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Notes for Remarks
by

The Honourable Leona Dombrowsky
Minister of the Environment
MPP Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox & Addington

Spring Workshop and Annual General Meeting
Association of Municipal Recycling Coordinators

Hockley Valley Resort
February 17, 2005

(Check against delivery)

It is a great pleasure to be here this evening.

I am grateful to Vivian De Giovanni (Executive Director – AMRC) and the organizers for the invitation to once again address your Spring Workshop and Annual General Meeting.

I love the name of your workshop. It reminds us that a change of season is not far off and that we are moving forward.

Spring is a time to assess where we are and where we need to be.

I believe we have laid solid foundations for meeting Ontario’s target – diverting 60 per cent of waste away from landfill and disposal.

While many challenges remain, we are well-positioned for success.

Much of the credit goes to great partners like the members of the Association of Municipal Recycling Coordinators.

For more than 15 years, the AMRC has provided high-quality recycling programs. We have long relied upon you for environmental solutions that work.

Like you, the McGuinty government believes Ontarians deserve healthy and prosperous communities to call home.

Diverting waste is essential to protecting our precious natural resources and our quality of life.

Coming from the farming community of Tweed, I am keenly aware of the need for well-preserved lands.

We need green spaces for health, recreation and all of the benefits that nature brings.

We need to preserve fertile lands for the sustenance they provide.

I think it is important to note that my community has quite an aggressive and advanced waste management system in place. Effective waste diversion is not only the domain of big cities – it can be sustained in smaller and rural communities just as well.

Setting and meeting ambitious waste diversion goals is part of meeting our responsibility to those who will follow us.

The Premier often says, “We have not inherited our environment from our parents, rather, it has been loaned to us by our children.”

The phrase “60 per cent diversion” does not convey the magnitude of our task.

What we are really talking about is ensuring that Ontario’s waste management needs are met for at least the next generation and beyond.

You know this well. You have to plan in increments of 30 years or more.

While short term waste issues need attention, it is wise to plan waste management for the long term.

The decisions we make today about waste will be felt for decades.

We must do things in different and better ways.

It means a multi-faceted approach. We must broaden our efforts to divert more types of waste.

We need participation from a higher-than-ever percentage of municipalities, businesses and organizations.

We need sustainable financing systems.

Our government was the first to approve a plan to ensure the long-term viability of the Blue Box.

In the first two years of the WDO Blue Box Program, municipalities did not receive monies that reflected the real costs of running their programs.

WDO has now collected sufficient information to determine the level of fees that should be forthcoming from industry. Fees have now been adjusted accordingly.

Finally, municipalities will begin to receive 50 per cent of the true cost of operating municipal Blue Box programs.

It is about time. For too long, you have carried more than your share of the burden. Industry is now providing its share for addressing the wastes that it produces.

We now have proof that the WDO plan for Blue Box sustainability works. In fact, I have been told that diversion of Blue Box waste increased by over 7 per cent between 2002 and 2003. This means that 53 per cent of all waste that could be captured by the Blue Box is now being recycled.

That’s good news but we need to do more. In fact, about a year ago I asked WDO to look at a series of new measures and enhancements that would bring the percentage up to 60 in keeping with our goal to reach 60 per cent waste diversion by 2008.

The WDO continues to strive to increase the amount of Blue Box waste collected. The WDO estimates that we could see a five to seven per cent increase in 2005, taking the overall recovery rate to between 820,000 and 835,000 tonnes.

I must emphasize that we need to be responsible managers of this newfound funding.

Our government has worked hard to bring businesses on board to achieve a single goal – reducing waste.

Part of our new agreement on Blue Box fees is a cost-containment strategy. If we want to keep this agreement viable, we need to ensure that costs are controlled very carefully.

I know that there is strong support for a 60 per cent waste diversion plan.

The extensive consultations we heard during the summer yielded valuable input. We will use those comments in developing an action plan to achieve 60 per cent waste diversion. I look forward to discussing this plan with you in the future.

We are using the feedback we received as our guide.

Much of the discussion revolved around improving diversion rates for organic materials.

Organics have an obvious role to play in diversion when you consider that they account for almost 40 per cent of the municipal waste stream. They also make up more than 10 per cent of industrial, commercial and institutional wastes.

We need to take organics diversion to a new level.

I am encouraged to note that many municipalities have green bin programs or are in the process of introducing them.

Organics are a valuable resource…not garbage. Unfortunately, until recently, composting standards had been an obstacle, with too much organic material ending up in landfills.

Municipalities told us they needed rules making it easier to establish workable composting programs.

We have responded with new standards that match Canada-wide standards and allow more materials to be composted. The new standards also create more end-uses for composted material.

The Composting Council of Canada found that the major barriers faced by the composting industry in Ontario are limited knowledge about compost, underdeveloped markets for compost; and the lengthy approvals processes to establish or expand facilities.

I hope to address some of these issues as part of our upcoming 60% waste diversion action plan

We have also heard the call to increase diversion by designating more materials under the Waste Diversion Act.

One area with untapped potential is the waste generated by electric and electronic products.

Electronic waste is a growing part of the waste stream and the vast majority of it is being disposed of in landfills. About 157,000 tonnes of e-waste went to landfill in Canada in 2002 and it is predicted to grow to 206,000 tonnes by 2010.

In 2003, Ontario municipalities diverted just 900 tonnes of electronic waste.

We call it WEEE for waste electronics and electrical equipment.

In December, I designated WEEE under the Waste Diversion Act

At the same time, I asked Waste Diversion Ontario to work with representatives of the industries involved to develop a program that would include more than 50 products, ranging from appliances to computers to cellphones and TVs.

I asked WDO to focus on four priority categories, with more to come later. Those priority categories are household appliances, IT equipment, telecommunications equipment and AV equipment.

I also asked them to prepare a study of the state of electronics management in Ontario. For example: I have asked them to look at the quality and quantity of WEEE, the current collection and processing infrastructure, demands for markets, projected infrastructure requirements, and sales.

WDO’s report is due in May.

We are also focusing on keeping untreated hazardous wastes out of the waste stream.

Under existing rules, companies in jurisdictions with tougher hazardous waste rules could look to Ontario as a place to dump this material.

I have proposed a regulation to ban the land-disposal of untreated hazardous waste.

The proposed regulation will require hazardous wastes to be neutralized, immobilized or eliminated before disposal.

Finally, I want to update you on our efforts to reform Ontario’s environmental assessment process.

EA improvements are long overdue.

This is one thing that everyone has been able to agree on for a long time.

You may recall that last year we appointed an EA advisory panel to look at ways to improve and simplify the system. I am happy to report that their final recommendations will arrive this month.

We need to create a sharper, more effective and more efficient tool to deal with projects that impact our environment.

Improvements we make to environmental assessment will not come at the expense of the environment.

I believe we are putting the building blocks in place to help municipalities better manage your waste.

The McGuinty government recognizes that many challenges remain.

That is why we are showing the leadership that Ontario needs.

I am excited by the great things being done.

The Blue Box is achieving sustainability, with municipalities finally beginning to receive full fees from industry to run their programs.

Programs are taking shape that will get more types of materials out of the waste stream.

We are making it easier to set up composting programs.

We are moving forward on electronic waste.

We are making it easier to bring in new technologies and obtain environmental assessments of waste management systems and facilities.

Ontario is well-positioned for success.

In the Association of Muncipal Recycling Coordinators, we have the right partners to move forward.

I look forward to working with everyone here to ensure that Ontario’s waste management needs are met for decades to come.

Thank you.

 

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