Ontario Aims for 60 Percent Recycling Rate

Stakeholders will also get the chance to sound off about the province's long-maligned environmental assessment review process, which the ministry says is in need of an overhaul.

''Increasing the diversion of non-hazardous waste from disposal will help to . . .achieve the government's commitment to clean, liveable communities with the key result of reducing the rate of green space lost,'' the ministry says in a backgrounder on the announcement expected later Monday.

''To achieve this goal, the government will release a discussion paper on options for achieving 60 per cent waste diversion from disposal and how they might be implemented in an economic and practical manner.''

Options for diversion include accelerating and expanding centralized composting, increasing the types of products that can be recycled, and working with industry and municipalities to find new markets for recycled materials.

There is now a patchwork of recycling programs across the province with some municipalities being far more successful in diverting waste from landfill sites than even neighbouring communities.

Guelph is one example where upwards of 60 per cent of the waste collected is being recycled in one way or another, while Toronto has a relatively underperforming Blue Box program.

Ontario has been plagued for years with environmental assessment review problems, particularly when it comes to expanding or establishing landfill sites.

''The Ministry of the Environment will set up an advisory panel of expert practitioners to develop proposals on possible approaches to improving the environmental assessment process for waste management facilities, transit and transportation projects and clean energy facilities,'' the backgrounder says.

''Panel members would include representatives from the municipal, waste management and clean energy sectors, the environmental community, academics, the consulting industry and the legal community.''

There are some 14 proposed landfill sites on hold awaiting an environmental assessment review.

The government is also planning to release for comment a draft framework agreement with Ottawa on how best to co-operate on assessing the impact of projects that cross into both federal and provincial areas of responsibility, such as transportation infrastructure. - The National Post