The Ontario waste management sector made gains in operating revenues and job creation while the amount of waste diverted to recycling and organics processing facilities in 2014 increased by more than 7%, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.
Total materials managed by recycling facilities in Ontario rose to more than 3 million tonnes in 2014, up 7.6% from 2012. However, the provincial waste diversion rate remains at roughly 25%.
More than 2 million tonnes of the materials diverted from landfill in Ontario were from residential sources (a 5.3% increase from 2012) while slightly less than 1 million tonnes were from non-residential sources (a 12.5% increase from 2012).
Gains in job creation, operating revenues accompany increased waste diversion
The uptick in waste diversion was accompanied by increased revenues and job growth in the sector. The number of waste management workers inched up in 2014 to 14,476 – a 1% improvement over 2012. Operating revenues for the sector saw bigger gains, rising more than 6% to $3.77 billion in 2014, up from $3.55 billion in 2012.
The national trend was similar to Ontario, with gains in job growth and operating revenues, along with a 7% increase in waste diversion. Total waste diverted in Canada, as of 2014, now stands at 9.1 million tonnes.
The OWMA has continued to call for a greater focus on increasing waste diversion because of its positive effect on the economy.
In 2014, our association commissioned a study with the Conference Board of Canada, which found that moving to a more circular economy, in which materials are increasingly recovered and recycled into new products, could support the creation of about 13,000 new jobs and provide a $1.5-billion boost to the province’s GDP.