Toronto is in the process of formulating a new waste strategy to address the city's trashy elephant in the room: the fact that the Green Lane Landfill, the site some 200 km away that receives most of our waste, is currently on track to overflow in about a decade.

After collecting more than a whopping 830,000 tonnes of refuse last year alone, City staff are now asking all those who help produce our immense mountains of trash to chime in on how to best deal with the mess moving forward.

"With a growing population, Toronto's waste is anticipated to grow, and landfill capacity in Ontario is estimated to run out in the next ten years," reads a waste management update and call for public input posted two weeks ago.

It goes on to warn that the Green Lane dump specifically will be packed to capacity by 2034 or 2035 and that it is thus "critical to start planning now, as planning, regulatory approvals and construction of new waste disposal infrastructure can take more than ten years."

The current blueprint for dealing with our rubbish long-term was approved back in 2016, and though it will serve as the basis for the new plan, an overhaul is due, especially in regard to how objectives will be implemented from 2026 onwards.

Part of creating a new roadmap will also involve getting the word out about the region's landfill capacity challenges and assessing how we've been hitting (or missing) our targets over the last eight years.

Did you know that #CityofTO managed close to 830,000 tonnes of waste in 2023? The City is undertaking consultations on a long-term waste management plan to help accommodate our growing population. Have your say during a virtual public meeting on December 5 and 11 or fill out the… pic.twitter.com/szef2AWG3q

— Jennifer McKelvie (@McKelvieTO) December 3, 2024

Options currently on the table include sending waste to other willing municipalities, examining private landfill options, and expanding the Green Lane property, which may not even be possible at this point, given that the site was already said to be nearing its end of life back in 2016.

"While the City has a number of successful waste reduction and diversion programs in place to support the Long Term Waste Management Strategy's aspirational goals of zero-waste and moving towards a circular economy, long-term solutions for the disposal of residual waste beyond the lifespan of Green Lane Landfill are still required," reads one city report calling for more attention to the topic last year.

The doc also looked into short- and medium-term solutions to what was then already an extremely pressing and complex issue. With Toronto since becoming the fastest-growing city in the U.S. and Canada, the urgency is only heightening exponentially.

Residents can complete an online survey about how they think the city has fared with waste management thus far, and what we should consider for future, until December 20.