For years, the densely-populated Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has struggled to find a home for the millions of tons of garbage produced annually by the region's nearly 6 million residents. Currently, the state of Michigan serves as a dumping ground for much of the GTA's waste, but with new restrictions on the horizon, municipalities in the area of Southern Ontario are turning to the provincial government for help in solving the landfill dilemma facing their communities.
According to the Toronto Community Environment Assessment Team, Toronto alone will ship 910,000 tons of waste in 2006. Since 1998, the city has alleviated it garbage problems by shipping much of its solid waste across the border to Michigan state. It is currently operating on a contract with the Republic Service Inc. to haul its garbage to the Carleton Farms Landfill Site in Michigan until 2008.
But Toronto is coming under increased pressure to find domestic solutions to its waste problems. In August 2006, a Michigan Senator introduced a bill which would impose a $420 fee on every garbage truck crossing the Canada-U.S. border. The money would pay for the technology, time, and manpower required to perform security checks on all the trucks.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says that garbage trucks crossing the border are a potential security threat, and that some have been found to carry contrabands such drugs, medical waste and even radioactive waste across the border to Michigan. But some believe the purpose of the proposed legislation is much simpler: Americans don't want southern Ontario's garbage in their back yard. And as it turns out, neither do Southern Ontario residents.
One possible solution to the region's looming waste disposal crisis is the expansion of a landfill site in the township of Warwick, Ontario.
The current landfill site, located in Watford, a rural community of the Warwick Township near Sarnia, Ontario, is operated by the Texas-based Waste Management Canada Cooperation (WMCC) and serves Warwick and selected near-by municipalities. The WMCC has proposed to expand the Warwick landfill's capacity from the current 55,000 tonnes to 750,000 tonnes of waste per year for 24 years. That would add up to a total of 23 million tonnes of waste, making the Warwick landfill among the largest in Canada.
The Warwick Township has recently urged the Ministry of Environment to take the necessary steps to protect the township and its residents against the impact of an expanded landfill site.
"It is predicted that the Warwick-Watford Landfill expansion will cause high level of intrusiveness to the local community if it is approved," said Peter Pickfield, a lawyer for the Township of Warwick working on this case. Residents fear the additional traffic, litter, odour, noise, and dust that are expected to come with the landfill project will adversely affect the town's image and quality of life.
The proposed landfill will be sitting at the gateway of the Watford's business area, and according to the Township's May 2006 Final Submission to the Environment Ministry, over half of the residents and all major businesses are located within the predicted impacts area.
However, the Peer Review Team found that the WMCC did not address many of these concerns when it performed an environmental assessment.
Currently, the Environment Ministry is pending the approval of the landfill expansion upon Warwick Township's request. "We might hear results from the Ministry of Environment next month," said Pickfield, who hopes the Ministry will consider the long-term environmental and economic consequences stands to suffer as a result of the landfill expansion.
"Warwick is a small town. The provincial government should get involved to ensure the Township and its residents are treated fairly," he says.
Although it is unclear whether or not an expanded Warwick landfill would service Toronto's waste disposal needs, Steve Whitter, Director of Transfer Process and Disposal Operation for the City of Toronto says the city will look to dump its waste in Ontario in the event that it becomes unviable to continue sending its garbage to Michigan. Several smaller municipalities in Southern Ontario have criticized the GTA for attempting to export its garbage problems to the United States or to other Ontario communities.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley notes, for example, that surrounding communities simply don't have the ability to accommodate Toronto's garbage.
"A city's landfill lasts 25 years for local use. With Toronto's garbage input, local landfill will use up the capacity during 5 or 10 years," said Bradley. "Applying for a new landfill is both time consuming and expensive, let alone community conflicts to be solved."
Sarnia is among a number of other municipalities including Guelph, Waterloo and London comprising the Southwest Ontario Trash Coalition, which has recommended that each city deal with its garbage problems in its own yard.
"Toronto should have a serious back up plan rather than taking actions to react to garbage crisis," says Bradley. "We still have not seen Toronto taking significant steps on this issue."
The Coalition has called upon the provincial government to get involved in seeking a solution for the garbage disposal problem, and to implement uniform standards province-wide.
Until then, Toronto is working to reduce the amount of waste it sends to landfills. The Waste Diversion Task Force 2010 set the goal to divert 30 percent waste from landfills by 2003; 60 percent by 2006; and 100 percent by 2010. "The timeframe has been postponed with 60 percent of diversion rate by 2008; and 100 percent by 2012," says Whitter.
"By August 2006, Toronto has diverted 43 percent in single house residences." said Whitter, "We are recycling 500,000 tonnes of waste materials each year."
In Canada, approximately 67 percent of the garbage ends up in landfills, and in the United States, the figure is close to 80 percent.
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