Publications and Resources

Our latest Waste Management Master Plan (WMMP) was approved by Regional Council in November, 2013, after extensive research, and public consultation (including an online survey and public information sessions). We needed a new WMMP given the majority of the original 1986 WMMP had been implemented.

Our WMMP provides a guideline on:

new ways to divert (reduce, reuse and recycle) waste from our one-and-only landfill, and
long term, sustainable option for dealing with garbage, after our landfill closes in about 15 years. Note: We adopted a waste hierarchy that includes “Recovery” and considers recovery of energy and resources above landfilling.

The lists of priorities and options in this master plan still require individual, detailed implementation plans, budgets and approval by Regional Council.

To date, we have made good progress on our WMMP:

March, 2017: We implemented curbside collection policy changes to increase diversion including garbage bag/can limits, bi-weekly garbage collection, standardized Regional residential waste collection in all seven area municipalities, and a “user pay” program (garbage tags), and standardized the Regional waste by-law.
June, 2018: Drywall and wooden pallet recycling drop-off programs started at our transfer stations.
We have started investigating thermal technology options for residual garbage, established an inter-municipal working group to explore potential partnership opportunities, and continue to pursue opportunities with the Water Services Division to maximize synergies for processing and disposal of residual waste and biosolids.

Future plans include:

Investigate waste diversion options for multi-unit buildings (expected between 2019 to 2021)
Modifying depot drop-offs (design work is underway for our Waterloo site)

Reports and documents

Final Master Plan report (2MB)* which includes the Waste Reduction and Diversion Study (3 MB)* These historical documents are not in an accessible format
E13-127* Waste Management Master Plan: Final Study Report to Planning and Works Committee November 12, 2013, approved by Regional Council on November 20, 2013 (see the minutes* starting on page 13)
TES-WMS-15-01*: Waste Management Master Plan Implementation Update, February 3, 2015
TES-WMS-16-05*: Waste Management Master Plan Update, Completion of Thermal Treatment and Energy Recovery for Residual Waste Management Feasibility Study (Consultant Presentation), June 14, 2016

*Documents available in accessible format upon request.

Videos

1. Virtual Tour:

This amazing virtual tour will take you “behind the scenes” in our Nyle Ludolph Materials Recycling Centre and landfill area at our Waterloo site. Take your time, move your cursor right, left and all the way around for an in-depth view of the different areas. To really bring the video alive, watch it with virtual-reality goggles.

During the video tour, you will see symbols:

When you click on the camera icon, it will take you to a photo with a written description.