Taking a Look at Toronto’s Waste Management Program

Explain the concept of Sustainability

Part A

  1. Review the “Putting Waste in its Place” poster.
  1. Take a look at Toronto’s Waste Management website here.
  1. Did you find Toronto’s waste management Putting Waste in its Placeposter or the City of Toronto’s website easier to follow? Give some reasons for your choice.

2. What changes would you make to the website to make it easier to understand?

Take a look at the “Proper Waste Disposal Tips”handout published by the City of Toronto and answer the following two questions:

3. Which step, in your opinion, is the easiest to understand? Give one or two reasons for your answer.

4. Which step is the most difficult to understand? Give one or two reasons for your answer.

Part B

Watch the video “Dufferin Material Recovery Facility”which is about what happens to waste you put in recycling bins, and then answer the questions below:

5. What percentage of the people in the city participates in the recycling program? (Theparticipation rate) _____%

6. What does every resident receive to help them recycle properly?

7. Wheredoes the recycled waste go once it has been sorted?

8. Name the item or product each of the following becomes after it has been recycled:

Aluminum______Glass______

Paper______Plastic______

Part C

Openthe “Solid Waste Management”Excel file and save it into your home drive. Using the “How to Make a Double Bar Graph” handout, create a double bar graph in Excel to show how much money the City of Toronto was able to make from selling waste materials (their earnings) in 2010 and 2013.

Actual earnings is the amount of money the city actually makes from selling sorted recycled material

Expected earnings is the amount of money the city thought they would make from selling sorted recycled materials

Answer the following 4 questions using the information in the excel table and the two graphs you created.

9. Complete the table below:

2010 / 2013
Actual earnings -
Total for the Year
Expected earnings -
Total for the Year

10. Describe one similarity and one difference between years 2010 and 2013.

11a. Using the graphs you created, identify the season during which the city earned the most money from selling recycled materials in 2010. Why do you think the city made the most money during this season?

11b. Using the graphs you created, identify the season during which the city earned the least money from selling recycled materials in 2010. Why do you think the city made the least money during this season?

12. Why do you think there is such a big difference in the amount of money the city earned by selling recycled materials in the year 2010 and the year 2013?

Part D

Read the following information put out by the City of Toronto in 2013:

The City is committed to continuing to improve our wastediversion efforts, reducing our dependence on landfillsites and moving closer to the goal of 70% waste diversion.

In 2013, residents living in single-family homes (houses) had a diversion rate of 67.5% while those living in multi-residential buildings (apartments) achieved a rate of only 25.8%, for a combined diversion rate of 53.3%.

This education campaign, including a direct mail piece sent to all residents in apartments and condos, is designed to help communicate about the importance of proper sorting, disposal and diversion.

Source: City of Toronto

13. Define the termwaste diversion.

14a. What percentage of waste from houses went to the landfill (garbage dump) in 2013? ______%

14b. What percentage of waste from apartments went to the landfill in 2013? ______%

Part E

15. Using the information you’ve learned from parts A, B, C, and D, handwrite a paragraphon a separate piece of paperabout how successful Toronto’s waste management program has been. Your paragraph must:

  • be written in third person
  • include your name
  • have a topic sentence
  • have3 or 4 arguments with specific evidence to support your opinion
  • include a recommendation for how to improve the city’s waste management program
  • includesomething that you can do to help make the plan more successful
  • includea concluding sentence.

Remember, you are being asked for your opinion, not Google’s opinion!