GTA Businesses Not Doing Their Part To Reduce Waste: Report

When it comes to environmental issues facing Toronto, garbage is up at the top of the list, but while residents are doing their part to reduce the amount of trash they generate no one is reining in the huge amount of waste businesses pump out.

The Toronto City Summit Alliance, a coalition of civic leaders across the city, released a call to action entitled Greening Greater Toronto Tuesday to address environmental issues in the GTA including garbage, smog, cleaning up beaches and increasing green space.

The group included a list of recommendations in the report with the goal of making Toronto the greenest city in North America in 10 years.

“The Toronto region has already demonstrated that we can be an environmental innovator. Greening Greater Toronto is about taking that spirit and engaging the whole community in the vision of making this one of the greenest city regions in the world,” David Pecaut, Co-Chair of the Greening Greater Toronto initiative and Chair of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, said.

“Greening our region will not only result in significant health and quality of life benefits but will also drive economic growth and jobs as the GTA becomes a centre of green technologies and services.”

One major hurdle the GTA must overcome to meet that objective is finding a sensible solution to reducing the region’s waste and according to the group the current plan of attack isn’t working.

But that’s not for a lack of trying on residents’ part.

The TCSA says 60 percent of the city’s waste is commercial and isn’t regulated by the city, but by the province, which it claims has failed to take a stern approach to dealing with the amount of waste created by businesses.

“In terms of waste, I think we shouldn’t be pointing fingers one way or the other. We’re all part of the solution here. So right now we’ve made good progress on residential waste but we have to go much further,” Ron Windsor of Waste Management said.

“The problem in commercial waste is we don’t really have a plan right now. Municipalities aren’t responsible for it. It’s being done by a fragmented industry.”

The Greening Greater Toronto report lists five key goals for the city:

• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions;
• Clean air;
• Clean water;
• Reduction and effective management of waste, and;
• Sustainable land use

While achieving this goal could prove difficult, Torontonians will reap incredible benefits, the group says, which include:

• Improved quality of life with more green space and clean beaches;
• Less commuting time;
• Improved health, and;
• Economic benefits for individuals and businesses.

Here are some of the key “greening opportunities” outlined by the Toronto City Summit Alliance:

• Greening Households: increase motivation and activity of all GTA residents through a campaign that rewards green behaviours, educates and inspires them to lead a greener lifestyle.
• Greening of Business: 64% of waste and almost 50% of carbon emissions in the GTA are generated by businesses. Many GTA businesses have become leaders in reducing environmental impact; the Greening Greater Toronto initiative strives to move further faster.
• Greening Public Institutions: encouraging governments to play a leading role in adopting green technology, developing ways for public buildings to access financing to green, and promoting upgrades across all eligible public buildings.
• Government Policies: convene the leaders of municipal, provincial and federal governments to raise awareness about their key environmental impacts, to facilitate multi-sector dialogues with key stakeholders, and to garner support for bold political actions that mitigate and reduce our impact on the environment.
• Building a Green Economy: as one of the major technology hubs of North America, it is critical to build on existing wins in the green technology sector and become a market leader in green goods and services.

To read the entire report, click here.