My quick summary can be found at one of my favourite engineering news websites, Renew Canada.

Sort your garbage. Break out the recycling. Separate the compost. And make sure it is in the right bin at the right time in front of your house.

The problem is that much of the recycling and compost is still ending up in the landfills. The Toronto Star has been reporting on this over the last year and I wrote about what is happening with our compost last week. This article is somewhat of a follow up to my compost article. While riding my bike home last week I got to thinking and wondered…

If garbage diversion is a priority why aren’t the municipalities paying individuals to sort it?

I do think that as residents we should do our part and separate our garbage, but we are all human and make mistakes with what we throw in what bin. But as the Toronto Star has reported, when something ends that isn’t permitted in the compost or recycling bin ends up there than the whole load goes the landfill.

I can see the argument already from the municipalities, ‘How do you expect us to pay for this?’

Is it really an added cost? Sending waste to the landfill is expensive. About.com quoted Michael Shapiro in an article ‘Do the Benefits of Recycling Outweigh the Costs?’ where he states that “A well-run curbside recycling program can cost anywhere from $50 to more than $150 per ton…trash collection and disposal programs, on the other hand, cost anywhere from $70 to more than $200 per ton.” And that doesn’t include the revenue generated from then selling the recycled material.

Instead if the waste is diverted, composted or recycled, than there is a cost savings to the municipality. From a Life Cycle Cost perspective the overall cost for diversion is less than land-filling. Particularly when you look at it from the Triple Bottom Line perspective, the social and environmental costs from land-filling are far more expensive than those of composting or recycling.

In order to move forward and divert more of our garbage the municipalities need to step in and play a larger role. It’s time we start sorting our waste before it ends up in a landfill.

The Toronto Star has reported (and more than once) that the amount of waste that the city claims it diverts is inflated.

Why Isn’t the Composting System Working

The City of Toronto provides a list of items that can go into the green, compost bin. The list includes traditional diapers and kittie litter, which we all know does not do well in a compost bin. In addition they tell residents to put it in a plastic bag, which obviously do not decompose.

The Toronto Star reports that the compost that is produced from city waste is highly salient. With the high salt content farmers are not willing to buy the compost because it kills their crops.

The final issue really complicating composting is the fact that compost sites have been shut down due to the smell they produce. The NIMBY’s are not recognizing the benefits of having mass compost areas but they’ll also criticize the city for not having a compost program!

Is it possible to find a viable solution?

The idea of city wide composting is great, we all (should) produce ample amounts of compost waste everyday (I say should because it does depend on one’s diet). I think the fault in the system is how we currently deal with the compost. Publicly run composting systems just aren’t working, instead it should be privately owned. In this regard there would be more incentive for removing waste which cannot be composted and producing a higher quality product; the better the compost, the more farmers and others will buy, the higher the profits.

I think if it were privatized that there were be incentive for the apartments and condos to ask their residents to start composting. It’s no secret that people living in apartments are not required to compost and everything ends up in a landfill. But their garbage is someone else’s treasure.

If compost bins were privatized there would also be more incentive to track those that polluted the compost. Add to that municipal waste should be sorted and that which is for the compost should end up in the compost pile.

Composting, recycling, pre-cycling, diversion, etc. are the future for our cities. It is just a matter of providing a combination of the right education and a well-managed waste system.

we compost and recycle at home but when it comes to work we turn a blind eye.

Maybe it’s the ‘out of sight, out of mind philosophy’ where someone else is responsible for that waste created not us. Don’t get me wrong it is much more difficult to separate recyclables at work and forget composting, no one offers that.

Small steps to take for being ‘greener’ at work

1. If you make your own lunch use recycleable containers that you can use to take your food scraps home in to recycle (or if you’re really ambitious and your work site permits it, start a composting program)
2. When going out for lunch look for restaurants that serve local, organic foods
3. Print as few things as possible. When it is essential to print use both sides of the page (I have good eye sight so I usually print two pages per page so I get 4 pages on one page!)
4. Keep a small recycle box beside your garbage.  That way it is easier to separate your trash from recyclables when cleaning your desk area

Remember a big part of our lives happens at work. Encourage friends and colleauges to respect the environment in all aspects of their lives. As corportate sustainability becomes the trend being ‘green’ at work will get easier.

In total there are now 22 temporary dump sites open in Toronto the latest suggestion being in the parking lot for the CNE grounds. Does that mean when I’m on the swings or eating my cotton candy at the Ex in a few weeks that in the background I’ll smell rotting waste?

Time to hire some private removal

Toronto instituted a compost program in December 2002 and boasts a mass reduction in its overall waste. But with the current garbage strike residents are being forced to either accumulate their organics or add it to regular trash and take it to a dump site.

Overall this means a lot of smelly garbage in these temporary dump sites. I think it is time for Toronto to hire a private company to clean up the mess (in the end they’ll have to hire someone private anyways to clean up the temporary dump sites because the city workers won’t do it since it is outside of their contract). Toronto residents pay enough in taxes and the city is saving millions not having to pay the workers right now.

My frustrations with the workers continues to mount (I’ve tweeted a few of them). On the weekend I received a disturbing flyer in the mail … more of this to come tomorrow.

I wondered through the garbage strike if individuals were being more conscious of their waste production? Were people being more prudent when they were shopping and purchasing products will less material? Or in packages that are recyclable or compostable? Were people just buying less?

Looking at the piles of garbage in the designated temporary dump sites of the parks and arenas, on the street and in every corner you can imagine I would guess not. Instead of encouraging people to build composts at their homes and divert more garbage by choosing more efficient products, the city’s solution is to open dump sites near people’s homes and tell them to double bag their garbage.

Outside of the politics of the Cities Worker’s Strike the strike has only taught us that really the Miller platform is not about being ‘green’ (don’t forget they are now spraying harmful pesticides on those garbage piles in parks) but instead about playing the media games.

The garbage strike could have been the stepping stone to promoting more green products, products with less packaging, buying local, etc, but instead it will just be remembered as a time with the city was smelly.

The last few weeks have been fairly busy for me and it seems like the trend will continue. Last week was the final week of classes at U.of.T for my Master’s courses. The week was quite stressful with an exam, a presentation and a final paper. The last evening were the presentation for my Engineering and Public Policy Course and the theme of an unsustainable city rang through.

Toronto and Ontario need to change their course of action.

In total there were 9 presentations (although I can only remember 8 of them right now). The target audience was typically the Ontario government but sometimes more locally with only the Toronto Government. Some of them have less to do with sustainability, the environment or transportation but I still included them.

Lowering Emissions: the group focused in on vehicle emissions, since it represents a serious amount of the carbon emissions in Ontario. In ways to minimize auto use they compared an even-odd system (where vehicles that end in an odd number drive one day, evens the other day), using emerging technologies to lower vehicle emissions, and a carbon cap system.

Making Ontario’s Health Record System Electronic: Yes, hospitals and clinics are still completely paper based. It’s inefficient and wasteful. Instead there should be something like a portal system to access records.

Dealing with Toronto’s Garbage: Although the group talked about diversion and techniques used in Sweden there was no mention about creating new diversion techniques in Toronto. The options they discussed with either land filling or incineration.

Supplying Energy to Toronto: With the current growth in Toronto we will be unable to supply the needed energy during peak demand times. Already underway is the construction on another massive power line to help alleviate this issue, but it’s not enough. This short-term solution needs a long-term solution. The presenters did mention the potential off-shore wind project on Lake Ontario but the bulk of their solution was the construction of more power lines.

HIV/AIDS in Canada: There is still no cure for HIV/AIDS. There drug regimens that allow individuals to lead almost normal lives. Awareness and education has somewhat dropped off the radar screen, the presenters emphasized the need for increased awareness and education programs.

Congested Road Network: The highways of the Golden Horseshoe are almost always congested. With a weak transit network it is difficult to be multi-modal. Instead the solution was for tolled lanes, HOV lanes, more Advanced Traffic Management Systems, and creating more capacity.

Waste-Water: With the population ever increasing in Toronto there is constant demand for the waste-water treatment plants. Currently the system is operating almost at capacity and with an ailing system it will soon not be able to meet demand. The authors discussed various treatment options and new sites that would be possible to deal with waste water.

The Aging Bridge Network: The province has downloaded 12,000 bridges to the municipalities and gave them a one-time payout for the inspection of these bridges. With the fatal collapses in Quebec and Minnesota the presenters believed that in Ontario we were not doing enough. The recommendation was for a province operated inspection program.

What none of these projects really touched upon was how we, as a society, can be more preventative. There was nothing about package minimization (yesterday the Toronto Star had an interesting article on this), creating new diversion programs, and nothing on changing the social attitudes of the population.

The evening of presentations definitely got me thinking about sustainability in Toronto and small things I could do to make a difference. What are things you do that help minimize your impact on the environment?

Recently in a Tim Horton’s store I saw quite an ironic sign. Remember that currently the ‘Roll up the Rim to Win’ promotion is still underway, although it is in it’s final weeks. Above the cash register I saw a sign that said something along the lines of “support earth day. Each time you bring in your own mug you save 10cents on your cup of coffee” So what are consumers doing?

Just like years before coffee drinkers have ditched their travel mugs in hope they might win.

I couldn’t really find any statistics on this but if I had to hazard a guess I think recyclable cup use is down and people are opting for the ‘throw away cup’ in hope they might get a coffee, donut, or even a TV!

Personally I do not really like Tim Horton’s coffee but do enjoy a steeped tea every so often. If I don’t make coffee at home then I usually opt for Starbucks.

Starbucks too has launched a campaign in support of earth day encouraging people to use their own mugs. They have always offered a discount to customers who bring in their own mug, now they are being more public about it.

Free Coffee April 22nd

Starbucks is actually offering its customers free coffee on April 22nd if they bring in their own mug. There thought must be that if they can encourage enough people to start bringing their own mugs that perhaps it becomes a habit. They could add to the campaign and sell their branded mugs at a discount that day so that everyone was still walking around with their white mugs with a green logo!

As much as possible I try to bring my own mug where ever I go. My bf and I have a huge stash of them at home so that if we forget one, we have back up. I also try to keep one at my desk that is used on the days when I need more than just my morning wake up ?

And I’m not the only one who recognizes this. This morning on 680News they interviewed Beaches residents of Toronto. The Beaches is a neighbourhood in the east end that borders along the coast line of Lake Ontario. There is a boardwalk that runs along the beach to make it easier for residents to walk. Instead of the boardwalk being surrounded by white fluffy snow or golden sand beaches a resident this morning commented on the vast puddles, the dirty snow and the mass amounts of garbage.

I don’t understand what it is about the snow and the cold that makes people want to throw their garbage out wherever they are instead of using the appropriate receptacle. I hope to see this trend decrease and I’m also secretly hoping for more snow this season.