Operation
The site was originally a large gravel pit which was purchased by the city of Toronto in the 1970s. Before its opening, Toronto's trash was sent to the Beare Road Landfill in Scarborough, and Vaughan's trash was sent to a site about 1 kilometre north of Keele Valley, north of Teston Road. When it opened, the Keele Valley Landfill was within an almost entirely rural setting, but the rapid growth of Maple in the 1990s surrounded the site with residential developments. The site opened on 28 November 1983 based on an agreement between Metropolitan Toronto and York Region, under which Toronto was required to dispose of York's waste until 2003 in exchange for establishing the Keele Valley site. However, the York municipalities of King and Georgina disposed of their waste in local landfill for some time, whereas the others paid dumping fees to the city of Toronto for use of the Keele Valley Landfill. The site was originally scheduled to close in 1993, at which time it was expected to reach its capacity of 20 million tonnes. It overlays a sand aquifer, using a single engineered landfill liner to prevent leachate from entering the aquifer below.
An on-site Household Hazardous Waste depot collected paint, batteries, pesticides, cleaning agents and other hazardous waste in small (residential) quantities. A general recycling depot, to which residents and businesses could bring appliances (refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, etc.), corrugated cardboard, drywall, scrap metal and tires for recycling operated at the site, as did a tire recycling depot. The facility also had a yard waste drop-off area, from which the operators would transport material for composting in large outdoor windrows on a site north of the landfill, at the Avondale Composting Site. It also accepted waste brought by residents of households in York Region, but building contractors abused the privilege by bringing numerous small loads to the landfill, prompting the imposition of a tipping fee in 1990 for pickup trucks and small trailers. Commercial haulers were charged $18 per tonne in 1988, and $97 per tonne in 1990.
The site was a profitable venture for the city of Toronto. In its last year of operation in 2002, it generated $25 million of revenue. It processed 1.57 million tonnes of waste in 1986, and 2.2 million tonnes in 1988, most of which increase was by the private sector. By 2000, it was processing 1.4 million tonnes of garbage from the city of Toronto.
Read more about this topic: Keele Valley Landfill
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