Paul van der Werf, Rob Cook & Peter Hargreave
Background
Work continues on developing a better understanding of residential and industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) waste disposal during and possible impacts as a result of COVID-19. To date there are twelve Ontario municipalities and nine municipalities in Alberta, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan. We also have a number of private sector waste companies with operations across the country participating. As more data is captured it allows for a better understanding of trends across the country.
It is important to understand that waste management flows are impacted by a number of factors from year to year (e.g., economic and population growth, weather related events, changes to waste management programming, waste composition, etc.,). COVID-19 is not the only influence that might be influencing waste generation and flows. There is likely some impact in the residential numbers below as municipal governments often collect wastes from some of small businesses on their residential routes.
Residential Waste Collection
Ontario
Compared to the same relevant week in 2019, the twelve Ontario municipalities surveyed to date are generally experiencing an increase in total residential waste generated with more pronounced increases in green bin and garbage (see Table 1).
Table 1 – Ontario Municipal Waste Flows (Weeks Starting 9 March 2020 to 13 April 2020)
Yard waste was excluded from the totals given many municipalities have suspended services and that yearly totals vary significantly based on weather conditions. With the exception of one municipality surveyed none of these programs allow leaf and yard materials in green bin collection.
Surveyed Ontario municipalities were further broken into three main groups – large urban / urban regional, medium urban, and rural based on the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority’s (RPRA) Datacall. Figure 1 provides a summary of average percentage changes per week changes as compared to the same weeks 2019. The average percentage increases appear to be levelling off. The spike in green bin materials for the week of March 30, 2020 is related to the three municipalities that saw an increase of 15%+ week over week. One of those municipalities accepts leaf and yard waste in their green bin.
Figure 1 – Ontario Large Urban / Urban Regional - Average 2020 vs 2019 % Change per Week
(Weeks Starting 9 March 2020 to 13 April 2020)
Figure 2 provides an overview of the differences in percentage change by waste stream for the eight
large urban / urban regional municipalities illustrating the difference experiences.
Figure 2 – Average Percent Change 2020 vs 2019 by Ontario Large Urban / Urban Regional Municipality
(Weeks Starting 9 March 2020 to 13 April 2020)
To date, surveys have been received from one medium urban and three rural Ontario municipalities (See Figure 3). Both are experiencing similar trends to the larger municipalities with overall increases in waste generation of between 6 – 10%. There has been some week to week increases since the beginning of April however they are tailing off in early April.
Figure 3 – Ontario Rural Municipalities - Average 2020 vs 2019 % Change per Week
(Weeks Starting 9 March 2020 to 13 April 2020)
Figure 4 provides an overview of the differences in percentage change by waste stream for the three
rural municipalities illustrating the difference experiences.
Figure 4 – Average Percent Change 2020 vs 2019 by Ontario Rural Municipality
(Weeks Starting 9 March 2020 to 13 April 2020)
Western Canada and the Northwest Territories
While some data has been received from Western Canada, more data is necessary to gain a more complete picture of the current impact of COVID-19. To date the data received show reductions or a status quo in residential waste generation rates from 2019. Additional outreach will be undertaken to provide a more complete picture in the following weeks.
IC&I Waste Collection
The majority of data collected to date on Industrial, Commercial & Institutional (ICI) waste collection is from Ontario but the small sample of data received from Western Canada does initially appear comparable. Generally, the waste flow data reflects economic activity variations and this is evident during the period from March 9th to April 17th. There is week over week variation, variability relative to specific sub-sectors and potential tonnage burden shifts between the ICI and residential sectors. While ICI data is sparse to date, limited data submissions and anecdotal information indicate that ICI waste collection tonnage has generally deceased between 12 – 22%.
Tonnage decreases were experienced across all collection modes however, tonnage decreases were most pronounced in Roll Off services in the range of 28% - 45%. This reflects the impact of the provincial ‘lockdown’ and greatly diminished construction, demolition and renovation (CRD) activity.
OCC collected tonnage has declined in the same period over 50% due to reduced commercial activity and a potential shift of some OCC into the residential sector with increased OCC and packaging associated with home delivery of food and consumer products.
Overall, ICI tonnage deceases and some increases are sector-specific – general commercial waste appears down, food processing/grocery stores appears up in excess of 20%, restaurants appear down in excess of 70%, and manufacturing appear down by roughly 15%.
As noted previously, reduced ICI tonnage may also be impacting residential tonnage numbers, where ICI materials from individual businesses and business improvement areas (BIA) are collected as part of residential collection routes.
Anecdotal information also suggests that bio medical and healthcare waste tonnage has increased considerably as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more information is received for the ICI sectors a more detailed picture should evolve.