Little progress has been made over the last two decades to significantly impact the amount of waste sent to landfill annually. While recent work completed by the OWMA shows these numbers underestimate both the amount disposed and diverted, they do illustrate the amount of change needed to move to a more circular economy.
Assuming waste generation trends remain consistent at 12-15 million tonnes of waste generated annually, Ontario’s remaining landfill capacity of 144,476,000 tonnes is estimated to be depleted by 2034. This number assumes reliance on exportation of 30% of waste to landfills in the United States.
The province is working towards a circular economy with new extended producer responsibility programs being enacted, but Ontario still needs to determine a solution for the MSW that is generated with landfills being a backup. This heavy reliance on landfills will require either new landfills to go through the lengthy approvals process to be sited or to find alternative ways of reducing materials sent to existing landfills.
To derive more value from MSW, Ontario will need to consider other pathways such as
- different technologies (e.g., anaerobic digestion, chemical recycling, waste-to-energy, landfill-gas systems, conventional combustion, mixed waste processing); and,
- emerging thermal conversion technologies (e.g., gasification, pyrolysis).
Fuels, such as RNG, can also be derived from waste as a source of fuel and be used to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. To ensure this capacity is not depleted, we need to explore opportunities to move waste higher up the CSA waste hierarchy and derive more energy from residential MSW before it is at the end of its useful life.
The time is now for industry, government, and stakeholders to come together to examine and build solutions. On March 31, 2022, OWMA will host the Alternative Technologies Forum: The Regulatory Environment and Harnessing MSW. Join us for this one-day in-person event where attendees will discuss and generate ideas on how to manage and divert material from landfills using sustainable and proven technology.