Ontario waste management group releases report on growing circular economy

The Ontario Waste Management Association (OWMA) has released a policy report titled "ReThink Waste: Evolution toward a Circular Economy," which summarizes the challenges with Ontario’s current waste management framework and provides recommendations on how to take a new approach to handling solid waste in the province.

The report notes that the province produces 12 million metric tons of waste each year, with three-quarters of it destined for disposal. At the same time, the conservation and recovery of resources has positive economic and environmental impacts across all other sectors of the economy.

“It is not in the province’s interests to continue to support a linear approach of take, make and dispose,” says Rob Cook, CEO of the OWMA. “We have a unique opportunity to improve resource efficiency, reduce our environmental footprint, increase productivity and drive local jobs and economic growth. The waste and resource management sector has the expertise to maximize material recovery, value creation and ensure the economy’s resilience to the resource crunch of the future.”

The OWMA report notes that the notion of a circular economy is an emerging concept that recognizes that the systems of production and resource recovery must integrate so that today’s wastes become tomorrow’s resources.

The OWMA also points out a number of recent reports have underlined the positive environmental and economic opportunities associated with a more circular economic approach, including the Conference Board of Canada Report, which identified that increasing reuse and recycling could support close to 13,000 new jobs in Ontario and boost the province’s gross domestic product (GDP) by $1.5 billion. The benefits also include local resource, food and energy resilience and security.

The key components to driving the change will be establishing a framework for economic instruments that drive outcomes in the least disruptive manner to the current marketplace, allow fair and open competition to incentivize efficiency and innovation, ensure proper oversight and enforcement and provide rigorous environmental standards.

The full report with recommendations can be found at www.owma.org/Publications/OWMAReportsandPolicies.aspx.