As an election issue, garbage is kinda messy. Figuring out how best to reduce, reuse, and plain get rid of Toronto’s mounting garbage problem is turning into quite the complicated little brainteaser. It’s because of this complexity that politicians only offer vague ideas on the issue before moving on to clearer topics like gridlock or gang violence.
In anticipation of the “Garbage Town Hall” taking place this Saturday at MaRS (see today’s front page), The Varsity offers our take on how best to tackle the sticky issue of waste disposal (for the science behind it all, see page 9).
U of T professor Pierre Belanger describes garbage as a “secondary resource.” It is our task, then, to harness this resource in an efficient and responsible way, so that we can bury and harmfully incinerate the least amount of trash possible.
We can start the planning by rethinking the issue: we must turn the problem of waste disposal into the solution for other problems, such as the energy shortage.
Huge dumping grounds and crude incineration are outdated solutions that are only attractive financially. As a city, we must be willing to invest in new technologies and infrastructure to help reduce the volume of trash that is shipped, burned, or buried. The benefits of such an investment will far outweigh the costs.
The green bin program has been a great success in Etobicoke, Scarborough and throughout the city, seeing tonnes of organic waste converted into compost each year, with little by way of harmful byproducts. People in the ‘burbs are diverting waste at ever-growing levels, but the downtown core has some catching up to do.
U of T, for example, needs a comprehensive garbage policy that would put green bins in every campus building, making it easier for students and staff to divert on the go.
Though arguably the most effective disposal method, plasma gasification-a process that consumes all types of waste (except for nuclear) and produces no ash-might be prohibitively expensive at the moment. Toronto should closely monitor the test project planned for Ottawa next year to see whether we might begin diverting a small portion of our most noxious waste to plasma within a few years.
In the meantime, the more affordable process of gasification can be used to reduce our volume of solid waste and produce low-emission combustible gases that can be converted to electricity and steam energy.
Belanger stresses the need to separate garbage at the source, and in fact a pro-active approach from Torontonians at home, at the workplace and in the public sphere to dispose of waste categorically would improve the efficiency of each disposal method we’ve researched.
Though scraping foodstuffs out of take-out containers and ripping labels off glass bottles can be tedious, it is that kind of individual responsibility that can lead to fantastic returns from a cumbersome resource. For the effort it takes to reduce our “trash-ological footprint,” we get back cleaner air, lower energy bills, more green space, and healthier fruits and veggies. It’s not a bad deal.
Crafting a multi-faceted, environmentally beneficial, and cost-effective strategy to dispose of Toronto’s garbage should be and must be a top priority for the new city council.
There is good news: it looks as though we literally have the solution to the garbage problem in our hands. If we are willing to separate our trash responsibly, and the government is ready to invest in a variety of disposal methods, then we very well might not need that Michigan contract after all.
