[kEiThZ]

Not everything can be incinerated for sure. But a good proportion of our trash can be. We should do it so we can maximize the landfill space we have. It's high time Toronto made some effort to minimize the trash we dump on other cities. Yes, recycling is important. But sadly we'll always have trash to deal with and I'd rather we bury less of it.

As for Greenpeace's opinion....that should be incinerated too! They are no longer a credible source on any issue. They are simply 21st century Luddites who want everyone to live in the stone age in the hopes of preserving the environment. As for their objectivity, their recent treatment of Apple says it all.

 

[isittimetomoveyet]

Incinerate.. the EU burns 17% of its waste, Denmark burns 53%!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4622484.stm

I will only support this type of technology if every effort is first made to reduce and reuse and recycle to every extent possible. Incineration justifies clawbacks in recycling programs and such, which cannot and should not happen. Reduce to 80% first, then burn the rest

 

[SunriseChampion]

MTown:



Only partly true - considering the amount of effort put into increasing recycling and the outcome of such program.

AoD

I was speaking more to the basic follies of landfilling as opposed to any capacity/life-time issues.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Not everything can be incinerated for sure. But a good proportion of our trash can be. We should do it so we can maximize the landfill space we have. It's high time Toronto made some effort to minimize the trash we dump on other cities. Yes, recycling is important. But sadly we'll always have trash to deal with and I'd rather we bury less of it.

As for Greenpeace's opinion....that should be incinerated too! They are no longer a credible source on any issue. They are simply 21st century Luddites who want everyone to live in the stone age in the hopes of preserving the environment. As for their objectivity, their recent treatment of Apple says it all.

The City has taken a pretty strong position on recycling and education surrounding recycling which will help reduce landfill. In my building (434 suites) we went from 35% of our waste going to recycling (summer/fall 2008, which our landlord advised was already above average within their company) to around 55% in January/February of this year. The management and tenant's association has worked together to educate residents and make physical changes to the way garbage is disposed of here with astounding results. Education continues and more changes/tweaks are continuing to help bring our recycling ratio even higher. Point is, there's less garbage coming from my building and going into a landfill which was not a whole lot of work to help affect change and people's disposal habits.

 

[afransen]

The City has taken a pretty strong position on recycling and education surrounding recycling which will help reduce landfill. In my building (434 suites) we went from 35% of our waste going to recycling (summer/fall 2008, which was our landlord advised was already above average within their company) to around 55% in January/February of this year. The management and tenant's association has worked together to educate residents and make physical changes to the way garbage is disposed of here with astounding results. Education continues and more changes/tweaks are continuing to help bring our recycling ratio even higher. Point is, there's less garbage coming from my building and going into a landfill which was not a whole lot of work to help affect change and people's disposal habits.

And that's in an environment where packaging is often not designed to be recycled.

 

[luxome]

The City has taken a pretty strong position on recycling and education surrounding recycling which will help reduce landfill. In my building (434 suites) we went from 35% of our waste going to recycling (summer/fall 2008, which was our landlord advised was already above average within their company) to around 55% in January/February of this year. The management and tenant's association has worked together to educate residents and make physical changes to the way garbage is disposed of here with astounding results. Education continues and more changes/tweaks are continuing to help bring our recycling ratio even higher. Point is, there's less garbage coming from my building and going into a landfill which was not a whole lot of work to help affect change and people's disposal habits.

Good, you mentioned consumer awareness. That's one of the key point. Few people realize the severe impacts waste has on our environment and even less people actually act accordingly by slightly altering their lifestyle.

Keep in mind that even with Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, we can only reduce our waste by up to 60% (at its best). A lot of waste is still going to the landfill. There was a case study where a highschool geography teacher took care of his own waste safely without ever using municipal waste pickup for 30 years! (might be a little extreme, but he shows that it is possible.)

And that's in an environment where packaging is often not designed to be recycled.

Packaging! very very important. Before we do any of the 3Rs, it starts with federal leadership by strictly regulating manufacturers to NOT overpackage their products. There are way too many "flashy" and unecessary packagings.

Part of my other research was on Diapers! Avoid disposable diapers as much as possible (e.g., long trips, traveling) and try to stick with clothe/reusable diapers or decomposable diapers on regular basis.

Now, my knowledge on waste may be bias, so don't flame at me if you disagree , i'm just trying to get a discussion going and get people to be aware of the problems that we have.

 

[Hydrogen]

luxome, remember that the big problem with landfills presently is that they are politically unpopular. There is land available for such structures, but no agreement on where it/they should be established.

Where is one problem, how much goes into it is another. Reducing initial waste output will work only to a certain degree. Diversion and recycling are good, but do not (and will not) eliminate all waste. Incineration and related processes have been assassinated by political groups like Greenpeace. The fact is that there are good ways to incinerate a portion of our wastes without the results being harmful. These certainly would be no worse than hiding a greater volume of stuff under ground.

As for diapers. You get a reduction in waste but an increase in water usage by washing them, flushing waste away, etc. Issues are rarely solved perfectly (if even solved at all).

 

[nfitz]

Reduce to 80% first, then burn the rest

Emissions from burning waste kill people - no matter how good the filtration and scrubbing technology is - your still putting some pretty awful chemicals into the air - many with a 1 in a million cancer risk. Thousands of chemicals at a one-in-a-million cancer risk each ... think about it.

And the materials best used for burning - they are recycled already. Look in your garbage can. Do you want to breathe any of that when it's burned? You'd be better off incinerating your blue box or green bin contents. (which might be better than shipping it to China ...).

Properly located and design landfills are pretty inert. If they do leak, it takes decades for the leachate to get far ... plenty of time to remediate. You don't have this option with a poorly tuned incinerator.

It's pretty simple. If you value human life, you put the waste in landfills. If you don't, then you incinerate. Sure, 100% waste diversion is better (but we have to stop selling our blue box contents to shady companies who just ship it to China) - but this will take time - and is expensive.

As for diapers ... I don't understand why people use paper diapers. I've got a 16-month old, and haven't needed to use a single paper one yet. Not even when travelling for a few weeks, on plane flights or 12-hour car trips (though I might change my mind if I had a 36-hour flight ... but how often does that happen with an infant?).

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Packaging! very very important. Before we do any of the 3Rs, it starts with federal leadership by strictly regulating manufacturers to NOT overpackage their products. There are way too many "flashy" and unecessary packagings.

Packaging is a real problem. With all the gifts my young nieces and nephews get for Christmas, the packaging could nearly fill an industrial garbage bin. There needs to be a shift in culture towards displaying & marketing our consumer delights with little or no packaging.

 

[SunriseChampion]

A shift towards paper-based packaging as opposed to plastics-based, perhaps?
Somewhat akin to what's happened at the LCBO where they replaced plastic bags with paper bags made from recycled paper.

Constantly recycled paper-based packaging sounds like a good idea on the surface but I'm sure there'd be mass problems with it, as with every other idea I ever come up with.