Toronto City Councillor
Ward 25 Don Valley West

(appeared in Bayview Post, May, 2004)

A law recently enacted by the State of Michigan is designed to restrict the import of waste into Michigan regardless of its origin. This law gives Michigan emergency powers to close its border to waste in the event of imminent and substantial health, safety and environmental threats. Another part of the law expands the list of materials prohibited from landfill to include tires and beverage containers (carbonated beverages - pop/carbonated water, coolers and beer). This law also requires the pre-registration and certification of waste generators and for the state to conduct additional inspections and impose higher fines for any violations.

Since the closure of Toronto's local landfill at the end of 2002, Toronto has sent all of its residual waste for disposal to Michigan. Our plan is to eliminate dependence on Michigan landfills by 2010.

We have delivered on our pledge to pursue aggressive diversion plans that result in a very measurable decrease of trucks hauling Toronto waste to Michigan. The number of trucks peaked in 2003 and is already on the decline. We met and exceeded our diversion goal for 2003 - which was 30 per cent diversion - by achieving 32 per cent. This 32 per cent translates into a diversion of 287,000 tones of residential waste annually. If this material had not been diverted, more than 8,000 more transport trucks would have made that round-trip to Michigan.

We are working diligently to solve our long-term waste management needs. The amount of Toronto waste bound for Michigan will decline steadily over the coming years.

The City of Toronto exports only non-hazardous, residual solid waste. Toronto Waste Transfer Stations do not accept medical waste consisting of pathological, bio-hazardous or infectious materials. The City has installed radiation detectors at its seven waste transfer stations to detect potentially radioactive items before they are loaded for export to landfills.

I urge the residents and businesses in Ward 25 to continue with their best efforts to fully participate in our current recycling programs as well as any new waste reduction programs and services. Recycling is picked up once every two weeks, if you would like one of our Garbage/Recycling Calendars you can download it off the Internet at www.toronto.ca/garbage/ or you may contact my office at 416-395-6408 to request one.

Hazardous Waste should not be left at the curb. For information on how to dispose of hazardous waste, please call 416-392-4330. Yard Waste will be collected weekly in April, May, October and November. It is collected every second week during the months of June, July, August and September. Yard waste collection ends the last week of November. See you at our Environment Day on June 5.