COMPOSTING TRENDS IN CANADA SHOW VARIED PROGRESS: Canada has 350 composting facilities with access to curbside collection of organics varying widely across the provinces

摘要

CANADA'S IMAGE as an environmentally pristine place full of beautiful lakes, mountains, plains and hockey players belies its consumption and waste generation. Even though there are many diversion programs across the country, waste generation continuesto grow by an estimated 1.5 percent annually. Like the United States, Canada continues to rely heavily on landfilling. Management of organic wastes is a major issue for municipalities, because about half of residential MSW is compostable (20 percent forinstitutional, commercial and industrial entities). Since about 70 percent of MSW in North America is land-filled, being able to divert close to half the stream away from the landfill gates means a longer lifespan for those sites. Composting is one viable option to help manage these wastes.