Toronto Reaches Maximum Apartment Recycling Levels

According to the city of Toronto, 100 percent of the apartment buildings in Toronto that receive city garbage collection also have access to the city’s recycling program. The city estimates that the figure was reached by adding five buildings per day for the past year-and-a-half.

"The City of Toronto has increased the volume of waste diverted from landfill through our aggressive campaign to get 100 percent of our apartment buildings participating in our recycling program," said Councillor Brad Duguid, chair of the city’s Works Committee. "That is a huge accomplishment. A short 24 months ago, our diversion efforts were being scoffed at. With efforts such as this, Toronto is now surpassing other municipalities as we strive to become a world leader in waste diversion."

The City has set waste diversion goals of 30 percent in 2003, 60 percent by 2006 and 100 percent diverted from landfill by 2010.

A mandatory recycling bylaw was approved by Council in April 2001. If an apartment building chooses not to participate in the recycling program, municipal garbage collection service is withdrawn and the building must pay for private collection.

In 2001, Toronto residents generated 914,864 metric tons of waste. Of that, 306,448 metric tons were created by residents living in apartments. Twenty-seven per cent of the total waste (243,802 metric tons) was diverted from landfill through recycling programs.