The Roadmap to a Circular Economy in Peel Region

Keep 75% of Peel's waste from landfill.

Residential waste is the garbage, recycling, organics and yard waste generated from residential properties.

Peel Region collects close to 500,000 tonnes of residential waste each year. 50% of this waste goes to landfill.

As Peel rapidly grows, so too will the amount, type, and complexity of managing residential waste.

Our goal is to divert 75% of residential waste from landfill by 2034.

To achieve this goal, we need to shift from simply throwing waste away to creating resource recovery and programs that:

Support healthy communities.
Help slow climate change.
Move towards a low-carbon economy.

In a circular economy, resources are reused and recycled instead of wasted. This reduces negative effects on the environment and boosts economic growth.

We developed the Roadmap to a Circular Economy in Peel Region (the Roadmap) to:

Help Peel move towards a circular economy.
Ensure that Peel's waste management system can handle continuous growth.

The Roadmap aligns with Peel Region's vision of a Community for Life, and the Waste-Free Ontario Act, 2016.

Mapping the path forward

The Roadmap's aspirational goals are to:

Create a circular economy with zero waste from residential sources in Peel Region.
Result in zero greenhouse gas emissions from residential waste management.

To reach these goals, the Roadmap sets out to:

Minimize waste generation.
Maximize the recovery of resources from our waste in a way that supports the growth of the circular economy.
Design and deliver cost-effect waste management services that meet residents' needs.

The Roadmap's recommended actions

We've summarized the Roadmap's 17 recommended actions to better reflect our efforts to achieve 75% diversion from landfill.

These actions include:

Improvements to existing programs, new programs, and policies to recover materials currently in the waste stream.
New technologies to recover material post-collection.

We believe the combination of these actions – as well as updates to our waste management programs, policies, and processing capacity — will help Peel Region achieve its waste diversion target.

Programs

Promote the benefits of waste reduction and reuse.
Increase the resource recovery in Peel's agencies, boards, commissions, and departments and business improvement areas.
Implement new and expand existing curbside and multi-residential resource recovery programs.
Optimize Peel's Community Recycling Centres services to increase resource recovery.

Policies

Advocate for extended producer responsibility.
Update our approach to communications, education, outreach, and enforcement.
Consider the adoption of a volume-based user fee for garbage.
Regularly update Peel's Waste Collection By-law and Design Standards and review, assess, and amend policies and programs.

Processing capacity

Construct an anaerobic digestion facility to process Peel's green bin organic material.
Develop our mixed waste processing capacity to recover additional resources.
Update Peel Region's infrastructure strategy to include mixed waste processing.

Tracking our progress

Peel Region is committed to monitoring its performance in waste generation, resource recovery, and customer service to stay on track, conserve natural resources, and reach its target in the most cost-efficient way.

For a full copy of The Roadmap to a Circular Economy in Peel Region, email Waste Management.