Closing
The resident class-action lawsuit eventually prompted Vaughan City Council to favour closing the site, and shipping York Region's and Toronto's garbage elsewhere. In 2000, Jackson declared to Toronto City Council that Vaughan Council would not extend the landfill's closing date beyond 2002, and rejected a proposal to operate it at half capacity until 2006.
Some 28 million tonnes of garbage were placed in the 376 hectare dump during its operation. The 99 hectare portion of the site designated as landfill reached its volumetric capacity in 2002, and was closed on New Year's Eve that year. Thousands of residents and Vaughan councillor Mario Ferri gathered at the base of the heap of garbage that day to celebrate the landfill's closing with champagne, cake, and fireworks.
Toronto had no immediate replacement facility, as the proposed Adams Mine project in Kirkland Lake met strong local and environmental opposition. After the closure of the landfill Toronto transported its waste to the Carleton Farms Landfill in Michigan. The city had started shipping 250,000 tonnes of garbage to Michigan as early as 1998, delaying closure of Keele Valley from 1998 to 2002. From 1998 to 2002, between 60 to 70 transport trucks carrying 34 tonnes of waste each were sent daily to Michigan along Highway 401; after the closing of Keele Valley, 130 trucks were sent daily.
However, the Avondale Composting Site operated through most of 2003, accepting clean fill at $30 per load, for revenues of approximately $250,000 that year, also processing existing waste into compost.
At Keele Valley, the city incurred costs of $15–20 per tonne of garbage processed. Sending it to Michigan cost $52 a tonne, increasing the city's waste management costs; closing Keele Valley also reduced the city's revenues, as it would no longer collect tipping fees it had charged private waste disposal companies to dump at the landfill. The city anticipated increased yearly costs of $41.8 million in a December 2002 report, owing to an increase in garbage disposal costs of about 300%. Of that, $13.4 million was due to higher disposal costs in Michigan, $25.8 million in foregone revenue, and $2.6 million related to the closure of the leaf and yard waste composting site.
In 2006 the city purchased the Green Lane landfill near London, which will become the new destination for the city's waste.
In order to address issues related to the costs of sending garbage to landfill sites, the city began a pilot green bin program in Etobicoke in September 2002, expanding the program throughout the city by 2005. This reduced landfill waste material by 30%, and increased waste diversion to about 42%. The city also established a mandatory recycling bylaw; previously, participation was voluntary.
Read more about this topic: Keele Valley Landfill
Famous quotes containing the word closing:
“From Harmony, from heavenly Harmony
This universal Frame began:
From Harmony to Harmony
Through all the Compass of the Notes it ran,
The Diapason closing full in Man.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“Although sleep pressed upon my closing eyelids, and the moon, on her horses, blushed in the middle of the sky, nevertheless I could not leave off watching your play; there was too much fire in your two voices.”
—Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)
“It is closing time in the gardens of the West and from now on an artist will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his despair.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)