Toronto has expanded its Green Bin program for organic waste to more than 4,500 apartment buildings, condominium complexes and co-ops.
"Toronto is a North American leader in recycling and composting programs," Mayor David Miller. "Expanding the Green Bin Program, along with other planned new initiatives designed to make diversion as convenient as garbage collection, will go a long way toward improving waste diversion rates among multi-unit buildings."
The city wants to achieve a 70 per cent reduction by 2010 in the amount of waste it sends to landfills. Currently, multi-residential buildings only recycle about 13 per cent of their household waste.
About 95 per cent of eligible single-family households participate in the Green Bin program, the city estimates.
Green Bin organic wastes make up about 30 per cent of Toronto household waste.
About 300 buildings will be added to the program every month for the next 19 months.
The city hopes that the new additions to the program will divert about 30,000 tonnes of such organic waste annually, once the program is fully implemented.
