Item - 2020.IE12.4

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council direct the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services to consider future work on the development of a mixed waste processing facility, only in conjunction with a thermal treatment process, where the overarching goals are maximizing resource recovery through reduce, reuse, recycle, energy recovery then residual disposal, minimizing the dependence on long term landfill use all while ensuring the financial sustainability of the Solid Waste Management Services program.

2. City Council direct the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services to report back to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee no later than the end of 2023 with a business case, including a triple bottom line analysis (environment, social and financial) and a utility rate impact assessment on the thermal processing of waste with and without mixed waste processing compared to traditional landfilling.

3. City Council direct the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services to pursue potentially applicable federal government, provincial government, and non-profit organization funding opportunities to assist in implementing Recommendations 1 and 2 above and to negotiate and enter into all necessary agreements to receive any available funding in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor.

Toronto's Long Term Waste Management Strategy (the Strategy) was adopted by City Council in July of 2016. The Strategy recommendations incorporate strategic system planning to minimize the need for new capital investment. Amongst several other actions to recover resources from the waste stream, the Strategy recommends studying and pilot testing mixed waste processing with organics recovery with a focus on the multi-residential garbage stream (due to lower waste diversion rates from this sector). The purpose of the study and pilot testing as originally outlined in the Strategy was to help inform the development of a business case on whether or not to pursue capital investments in mixed waste processing with organics recovery.

This report provides an update on the mixed waste processing with organics recovery study (the Study) work completed to date, preliminary findings and outlines policy and market conditions that have changed since the approval of the Strategy. This report also recommends not advancing a standalone mixed waste processing with organics recovery facility but to broaden the Study approach to include the consideration of thermal processing for materials that cannot be diverted for recycling or organics processing and its impact on long term residual disposal planning.