IT'LL COST YOU

摘要

In 2010, the City of Toronto approached me with a query. Recycling tons were down, and organics tons were down, but garbage tons were also down, meaning the falling numbers couldn't be simply attributed to residents tossing recoverable materials in the trash. What was going on? This led to a study on the future of curbside recycling collection (outlined in a 2011 Resource Recycling article) that looked at societal and lifestyle trends as well as future factors that might affect diversion tonnages and revenues over time. We predicted a reduction in newsprint in recycling systems as more news was accessed online and more plastic recovered as consumers demanded smaller packages, more prepared food and re-sealable packaging at the same time that packaging designers were lightweighting. These predictions were factored into a City of Toronto 15-year business plan.