Aside from taking out the trash and recyclables on garbage day, many of us put very little thought into what happens to the waste we create.
We carefully sort our recyclables from the trash and haul everything to the curb once a week, then go on with our lives, content that someone else is looking after the stuff we don’t want.
The minor headache of getting organized for garbage day pales in comparison to a serious threat that could leave residents and business owners grappling with garbage piling up in their communities daily.
Despite all our best efforts to recycle and reduce waste, about 70% of materials we put into the waste stream end up in landfills. Ontario relies on modern, engineered landfills to safely manage waste that isn’t or can’t be recycled.
These landfills are quickly running out of space. At current rates, major landfills in southern Ontario — the region with the province’s highest population and greatest waste management demand — will effectively be full within a decade. To safely manage our trash Ontario needs at least 10 new landfill sites within that same time period.
Unfortunately, we don’t have that much time.
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