From the Toronto Star:
In Halton, pipes in the landfill collect the leachate and gas, which are ultimately converted into electricity and added to the province's electrical grid through Oakville Hydro.
There are almost no active landfills left in the GTA. None in Toronto or York. Peel has a site in Caledon but it hasn’t been used for the past couple of years.
Durham Region has one operating site, the Brock Landfill, but it’s small and only handles about 10,000 tons of waste a year.
The only significant landfill still functioning in the GTA is the Halton Waste Management Site in Milton. About half-full, it is expected to be in service until 2030.
As with Toronto, the emphasis in the regions is on diversion. York boasts that in 2007, “it was No. 1 in large urban municipalities with 46 per cent diversion,” says Laura McDowell, director of environmental promotion and protection. “For 2009 we are targeting 59 per cent.”
The other major initiative is the conversion of non-diverted waste into green energy. Durham and York are in partnership to construct an incinerator that would be in Clarington, if it passes the ongoing environmental assessment process.
In Halton, pipes in the landfill collect the leachate and gas, which are ultimately converted into electricity and added to the province’s electrical grid through Oakville Hydro.
About half of Peel’s waste is sent to Algonquin Power Systems Inc. in Brampton, which converts some of it to electricity and some to steam. The latter “is sent across the street to Norampac (Industries) to help power its plant,” says Dave Gordon, Peel’s manager of waste planning.
What lies ahead for the GTA to make the various diversion and energy-to-waste programs more successful? Rob Rivers, Halton’s director of waste management, hopes the future brings greater integration among the regions. “In previous years each municipality felt it was their responsibility to build their own recycling or composting plant,” he says. “But maybe in this day and age we can do partnerships to build one large (facility) to take advantage of economies of scale and minimize the environmental burden.”
Neil MacDonald, York’s manager of solid waste management, says the future has to focus on creating even more energy recovery. “That’s where we’re heading,” he says. “It’s a long-term preferable approach to avoiding the legacy traditionally associated with landfills.”
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