Solid waste shipments from Toronto to Michigan decline
Toronto’s 142 truckloads per day decreased to 80 per day

Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality’s Annual Report of solid waste landfilled in Michigan, which was issued January 31, reflected a reduction of solid waste shipments from Canada.

In response to the report, the City of Toronto noted that it has met and slightly exceeded its 2007 target to reduce waste shipments to Michigan. The City of Toronto’s solid waste and wastewater by-products shipments have decreased by 27% since the 2005 baseline was established between the Province of Ontario and Michigan’s two senators.

At its peak in 2003, Toronto shipped 142 truckloads of waste per day to Michigan. Currently, Toronto averages 80 truck shipments daily. All of that waste from Toronto is shipped to the Carleton Farms landfill in Wayne County.

Toronto has taken two major steps to ensure that all of its shipments of waste will stop by 2010 and continue to be reduced annually in the interim. In April 2007, Toronto finalized its purchase of the Green Lane Landfill, located within Ontario, thereby securing a local Canadian solution to its landfill needs. The Green Lane Landfill will continue to meet Toronto’s disposal needs after 2010.

In June 2007, Toronto’s City Council passed a Target 70 Plan, endorsing a target goal of 70% diversion of waste from landfill by 2010. This should result in continued reductions in cross-border waste shipments from 2008-2010. The plan commits an additional $540 million to new waste diversion efforts over the next decade.