Exploring the Untapped Resources of Waste in Toronto
Waste is not garbage – waste is resources that haven’t been refined yet. It’s time to change the conversation and the why we talk about waste. As a waste management company, we see untapped potential every day across Toronto.
The waste output of residential, commercial, and industrial facilities are considered a nuisance by those who put them out. To others though, that waste may be almost as good as gold. If Toronto’s going to change the way it handles waste management, it’s time to see waste for what it really is – that’s, above all else, a resource.
A broken glass jar can easily be recycled into a new glass product. A toaster oven you no longer use can easily be given to another household who really needs it. A doll or child’s toy you’re children no longer play with can be provided to a thrift store for repair and sale. There’s many examples out there of things that are waste to some people and useful to others. If Toronto was serious about changing its future of waste management, an opportunity to do so would be to create recycling hubs wherein citizens could dispose of their waste and where they would be certain said waste would be recycled.
There are already sites and online communities where Torontonians exchange goods for free. Visiting classified ad sites like Kijiji, under the ‘free’ section, you’ll find dozens of people advising others of what they’re putting out to the curb. This is a great way to limit waste in Toronto and more attention paid to hubs like these could help elevate the way we view our waste. The sad thing is visiting any general-purpose waste management facility in Toronto, you’ll find so much amazing stuff being tossed away. Everything from tables to lamps, clothing, toys, food still in packaging, and more is found at different sites across Toronto.
A lot of the reasons why these perfectly good things end up in the trash has to do with time and opportunity. For example, there may not be enough time to find someone or a junk removal service to pick them up, or there may not be an immediate opportunity to repurpose said products. As these things are buried in our landfills, they take up valuable space while contributing to the development of highly potent greenhouse gases which exists in our landfills. There are some estimates suggesting that as much as 70 percent of our waste could be cut down today if we implemented infrastructures to sort, compost, recycle, refund, and/or donate everything we could. That’s a huge number and hopefully, we like to think that as the years go by, more infrastructure will be put into place to maximize the waste we continue to create.
The untapped resources of waste in Toronto suffer from not having the infrastructure in place to make the most of everything we’ve gotten. Consumers can only do so much and a lot of the time, they are severely limited by their environment. For example, composting is not possible in a condo environment. A lot of the time, consumers do not have the means to drive bulky furniture and electronics to a thrift store. In many cases, consumers may not be aware of specific depots or companies accepting hazardous forms of waste and other types. Needless to say, there’s a lot more to do in the battle for a zero waste future in Toronto!
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