Canada – Ontario plans for 60 per cent diversion

In Ontario, Canada the state government has announced a strategy to better manage Ontario’s waste and reduce the province’s reliance on landfills, focusing on achieving 60 per cent waste diversion from landfill.



The continued export of Ontario waste, particularly from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), to the United States is cause for concern to the administration. GTA municipalities have not been able to develop a sustainable, Ontario-based, long-term waste management solution. Increasing the diversion of non-hazardous waste from disposal will help to meet this challenge and achieve the government’s commitment to clean, liveable communities with the key result of reducing the rate of green space lost.



To achieve this goal, the government plans to issue a discussion paper on options for achieving 60 per cent waste diversion from disposal and how they might be implemented in an economic and practical manner. The paper will include the following for discussion:

setting province-wide diversion objectives setting diversion targets for residential waste that could be achieved through improvements to municipal blue box programs and increased composting

accelerating and expanding centralized composting in Ontario’s largest municipalities

developing a financing strategy for centralized composting, including cost recovery mechanisms, municipal revenue generation, public-private partnerships, shared infrastructure agreements, and provincial assistance in the form of grants or loans

examining feasibility of phasing in a ban on organics and other recyclable materials in Ontario landfills

introducing new options for source separation for the industrial, commercial and institutional (IC&I) sectors c

onsidering new and emerging waste management technologies

promoting packaging reduction and the increase of recycled content in paper and packaging

undertaking public education and awareness activities to promote 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle)

initiating province-wide tracking of waste going to landfill or export