Waste Diversion Ontario Announces 2012's Top 20 Municipalities for Diverting Residential Waste

TORONTO, Jan. 22, 2014 /CNW/ - Waste Diversion Ontario (WDO) today announced the 20 municipalities in Ontario with the highest residential waste diversion rates in 2012, ranging from 52.00 to 67.72 per cent (chart on page 2).

The residential waste diversion rate is the percentage of Blue Box and other residential garbage reported to WDO that is kept out of landfill. Reports with amounts of these materials were submitted in 2012 under WDO's annual Municipal Datacall by 230 municipalities or municipal groups, recycling associations and First Nations, representing over 400 municipalities.

In 2012, the overall residential diversion rate for Ontario increased to 47.2 per cent from 46.5 per cent in 2011. Over the past five-year period, the total residential diversion rate has grown by nearly eight per cent, which equals an average annual increase of 1.6 per cent since 2007.

"While there is much more work to do, I congratulate all municipalities for helping Ontario move in the right direction at keeping residential waste out of landfill," said Michael Scott, CEO, Waste Diversion Ontario.

Taking top spot in the province in 2012 was the City of Guelph with a residential diversion rate of 67.72 per cent. Guelph also came in first overall in 2012 for diverting the highest percentage of residential organic waste at 31.63 per cent of all residential waste in their program. In 2011, Guelph's residential waste diversion rate was 48.84 per cent. The 19 percent increase over 2012 can be largely attributed to 2012 being the first full year of reporting on Guelph's reactivated organics program.

"Guelph is a shining example of how significant progress in one waste area can have a huge impact on overall residential waste diversion success," said Scott.  

Meaford, Ontario's residential waste diversion leader in 2011, made the list again in 2012 at 59.73 per cent (fourth overall).

More details for the top 20 and results for the remaining 210 municipalities/municipal groupings, recycling associations and First Nations that reported to WDO in 2012 are available in the 2012 Ontario Residential Diversion Rates by Municipality spreadsheet available on the WDO website at http://wdo.ca/partners/municipalities/municipal-datacall/ (under "Documents"/Residential GAP Diversion Rates).

Highlights from the 2012 Ontario Residential Diversion Rates report (http://www.wdo.ca/files/8413/9040/6230/Datacall_Diversion_Rates_2012.pdf) also released today and the 2012 Organics Trends (Residential) report (http://wdo.ca/files/6213/8997/4569/2012_Organics_Residential.pdf) released on January 10 include:

• Out of the 4.8 million tonnes of residential waste generated in Ontario in 2012, 2.3 million tonnes were diverted from landfill, which equals the weight of 30,732 empty Space Shuttles.
• The average residential waste generation in Ontario in 2012 was 366 kg/capita, which represents a decrease compared to 2007 of 17 kg/capita (4 per cent), or the weight of about one Stanley Cup.
• The wastes that contributed most to the province's overall residential diversion efforts in 2012 were Blue Box (39 per cent) and organics (37 per cent).
• In 2012, a total of 927,351 tonnes of residential organic waste was reported collected in Ontario, which equals the weight of over 100 million pumpkins. This represents a 5.3 per cent increase over the 2011 collection quantity of 880,126 tonnes.
• Based on current curbside collection rates, if all 5,192,900 households in Ontario had access to curbside collection of organic waste, another 580,000 tonnes of organic material could be diverted from landfill, representing an increase of 12 percentage points in the province's overall residential diversion rate. 

Each year, WDO requires municipalities to complete the Municipal Datacall to be eligible for funding for the Blue Box Program. In addition, WDO requests the submission of tonnage data for all other waste materials the municipality oversees, including hazardous or special waste, electrical and electronic equipment, organics, garbage, and other materials.

Top 20 Municipalities for Diverting Residential Waste

Municipality	Residential Diversion Rate
1. Guelph	67.72
2. Owen Sound	63.09
3. Mono	60.62
4. Meaford	59.73
5. East Luther Grand Valley (township)	58.73
6. Oxford County	58.10
7. Simcoe County	57.65
8. York Region	57.25
9. Orangeville	55.99
10. Grey Highlands	55.90
11. Perth	55.56
12. West Grey	55.54
13. Red Lake	54.05
14. Kingston	53.79
15. Durham Region	53.63
16. Waterloo Region	52.52
17. Halton Region	52.37
18. Deep River	52.29
19. Madawaska Valley (township)	52.02
20. Orillia	52.00

Waste Diversion Ontario (www.wdo.ca) is the not-for-profit organization funded by industry that oversees Ontario's current recycling programs for electrical and electronic equipment ("e-waste"), used tires, Blue Box material, and hazardous or special waste.

SOURCE: Waste Diversion Ontario

Julie Kwiecinski, [email protected]; 416.226.3252 (office); 416.550.1995 (cell)