Toronto Has Four Years To Come Up With Trash Solution

Toronto has four years to come up with a solution to its garbage problem.

As of 2010, the GTA won’t be shipping any of its trash to Michigan following a push by U.S. senators to close the border to Canadian waste.

Ontario Environment Minister Laurel Broten said Thursday she’s been working with officials in four Toronto-area cities and the U.S. in order to come up with a reasonable schedule in which to phase out the trash shipments.

“It gives the municipalities four years to focus attention on how are they going to increase diversion, how are they going to look at new technology, what are their plans,” she said.

“We were paying very close attention to that legislation (because) it absolutely had the potential of closing the border   . . . in pretty short order, potentially by January 2007.”

Garbage from Toronto, York, Durham and Peel regions makes up nearly 20 per cent of waste in the state’s landfills.

But that amount will be reduced by 20 per cent by the end of 2007, 40 per cent by the end of 2008, and by 2010 will be down to zero.

Broten said municipalities have suggested to her that they can meet or beat the target. The hope is that most of the garbage will be diverted from landfills and reused. Toronto city councillor Adam Giambrone said that while there wasn’t a specific plan in place yet, officials plan to work with the province on finding a solution.

“The ministry has guaranteed that they will work with us to make sure that we have somewhere to put our garbage,” he said. “They know our challenges, they know what we’ve gone through in terms of Michigan. They know there are only a limited number of landfills out there that can accept or are willing to accept Toronto garbage, and in this agreement, these aren’t numbers that were just pulled out of the sky.”

Opposition parties were critical of the Liberal decision, saying they announced an agreement without having a plan to deal with the waste disposal.

“The four-year deadline is not a totally bad thing,” said Tory.

“But it’s astonishing – and it’s typical of the way the McGuinty government does business – that we have an agreement to close the border without any plan to go with it.”

NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns suggested the phase-out would mean more landfills and garbage incinerators in the province.

“I think it means burn and bury,” Tabuns said.

“I think they’re going to go full tilt on incinerators and will kick out the stops when it comes to licensing landfills.”

Broten said the Liberal government wouldn’t allow Toronto to revive its previous proposal to send trash to an abandoned mine near Kirkland Lake, in northern Ontario.