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Waste

Apr 22 2020

Annual Report 2019: Letter from the Chair

by
Climate and Energy Livable Cities Pollution Water

This marks our final annual report, as the Commission comes to the end of our five-year mandate. In 2019, our work focussed once again on carbon pricing — a topic we first addressed in 2014 and have returned to regularly. Since our launch, the political landscape around carbon has changed significantly — and so has […]

Oct 24 2019

Optimizing Extended Producer Responsibility in Canada

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Livable Cities

Extended Producer Responsibility has big potential (see my last blog). But getting the details right is critical. If programs are designed well, EPR could radically improve how Canada recycles. Done poorly, it could make recycling more complicated and more costly, with few environmental benefits. Where do Canadian EPR programs stand? Here we look at the […]

Oct 23 2019

The Case for Extended Producer Responsibility in Canada

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Livable Cities

Recycling appears to be broken in Canada. In 2016, a dismal 9% of our plastic waste was recycled. More recently, recycling programs have struggled since China—the world’s biggest recycler—stopped buying unprocessed plastics, paper, and metals. Some local recycling programs have ground to a halt as a result, while other programs are stockpiling, burning, and landfilling […]

Going ahead with the city-wide organics collection program also offers significant benefits.
Jan 23 2019

Wasted efficiency: Saskatoon is moving in the wrong direction on waste management

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Livable Cities

Saskatoon is backpedalling on smart waste policy. Bold initiatives were approved in 2018 to reduce landfilled waste and save money, but Council seems to be hitting the brakes. Ignoring Saskatoon’s waste management problem isn’t going to make it go away, however. In fact, further delay will just cost the city—and its residents—more. Problem on the […]

Dec 12 2018

Artificially cheap: Why landfills should charge the full cost of waste disposal

by
Livable Cities

The last blog in our solid waste series explored how charging households directly for their garbage can make municipal collection systems more efficient. But household waste represents only one-third of Canada’s total solid waste. Two-thirds is industrial and commercial waste, most of which is taken directly to local landfills. This blog looks at the importance […]

© Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission

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