1. What can you put in Toronto's Blue Boxes?
The city of Toronto allows you to place the following materials in the blue box: Glass bottles or jars, metal cans and plastic labeled 1 or 2, as well as special items which consist of: Milk cartons, Juice boxes, Paint cans and aerosol cans.
2. What can you put in Toronto's Grey Box?
The Toronto waste management lets you to put the following things in the grey box: Any paper material including newspapers, phone books, magazines, etc. In addition, corrugated cardboard that has been flattened and tied in bundles of 75 cm X 75 cm X 30 cm or smaller will be picked up.
3. What's the problem with sending Toronto's waste to Keele Valley landfill?
Keele Valley is a 365 ha. landfill city in the city of Vaughan. Surrounding it are residential, agricultural and transportation areas. On September 14, 1998 the city council had reconfirmed that Keele Valley Landfill should almost be full and a "slow fill approach" should be started and stop in December 2002. The city of Toronto finally agreed to an amendment on the environmental protection act, and extended the landfill's closure to December 31, 2003. The problem with sending waste to Keele Valley is because it would violate the environmental protection act.
4. What was the proposed deal with Kirkland Lake? What happened?
The Mayor of Kirkland Lake had a conference with Toronto on August 24, 2001. There was a deal being made. The mayor of Kirkland Lake, Bill Enouy proposed that he would build a composting plant that would handle 25,000 tonnes of garbage a year but only if Toronto would rip Michigan's Republic Service contract and divert all the garbage to Adam mines. Toronto didn't have many options so they took the deal.
5. What are waste exchange groups? Who benefits from them?
Waste exchange groups are a bunch of people who recycle, takes and sells all the types of material that normally can't be recycled for example: chemicals, batteries, plastics with labels other than 1 or 2. This service has been around since 1990 and helps businesses and industries. Businesses and industries benefit from this service because it gets rid of some of the waste they don't want and the waste exchange group can actually turn the garbage to a product.
6. What are some problems with Toronto's waste management program?
The main problem that Toronto has with its garbage is that they have not that many options of where to send it when their current ones fill up.
7. What are some realistic solutions for Toronto's waste problems?
Some realistic solutions for Toronto's waste problems is to combine the blue and grey box. The materials will be separated in a same plant and recycled there. This will save the people of Toronto hassle to separate them themselves. A second thing is that Toronto should start collecting organic material so that it can be turned into compost. These two things will help lower Toronto's garbage.
