Garbage transport derailed. (Ontario's Waste Management Act)

Catalyzed by the "garbage crisis" in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) where four million people produce about 4.3 million tonnes of solid waste per year -- roughly half of the provincial total -- the Ontario Minister of the Environment has introduced the bold and innovative Waste Management Act. The act establishes a tough, emergency-oriented regime for addressing provincial waste management problems. For example, agents of the new Interim Waste Authority may enter and evaluate private land within the GTA for the purpose of selecting a landfill site; the minister has a free hand to deal with waste issues during the search for a new site; and new obligations are imposed on the corporate sector to speed up 3R initiatives.

But the new act's most unique feature is its effort to establish the principle of local responsibility for waste disposal. It requires that the three new sites needed for GTA waste disposal be located within the GTA. In keeping with earlier policy announcements it shuts the lid on two controversial waste management options: incineration and transportation. This is done, not through an outright …