News from the Litter Reduction Working Group

article by: Steve Papagiannnis

Meeting was held on Jan 30, 2025 at the main City Hall building and was attended by approximately 20 people from various organizations.

There was quite a bit of discussion regarding the Litter Charter endorsement event.  Approximately 50 people and organizations signed the Charter and those who attended felt it was good to meet so many like-minded people.  The types of organizations that signed were non-profits like the BEA, religious groups, and the Brampton Board of Trade.  I asked if there would be a public listing of the groups that signed the charter and if there would be any commitments from those who did sign.  Publicly listing the groups was being looked into and a follow up with the signatories will offer active measures that they can take to reduce litter and waste.  There will be a request for some measure of what was accomplished.

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2024 BEA Year-end Review

2024 Litter free city workshop

It was difficult to write this year-end review for the Brampton Environmental Alliance. Not because we didn’t work very hard to make a difference but because several things conspired to make this a very challenging year, environmentally speaking.

Among the issues we faced: the Province prioritizing building Highway 413, and the efforts of the Emerald Energy From Waste company to expand its garbage burning operations in Brampton without appropriate environmental controls being in place. Of greater concern is the general apathy of the public towards environmental issues and the vitriolic response to public policies aimed at climate change mitigation, notably carbon pricing and rebates. The fact that we seemingly cannot have an adult conversation related to these important topics is deeply troubling.

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Ontario Climate Emergency Network Town Hall

OCEC Town Hall infographic

The Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign, (OCEC), is a non-partisan group promoting awareness on the climate crisis and environmental issues in the Province of Ontario. It’s aim is to empower citizens and urge political leaders with the power of democratic voice to drive the urgent transformational changes needed for the present and the future climate security of all Ontarians.

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Brampton’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan

Brampton 2013 Ice storm damage

Not to start 2025 on a downer note but, the climate crisis is upon us. 2024 will likely be the warmest year on record, the first to surpass the 1.5 degree Celsius mark set by the Paris Accord as a “safe” threshold to avoid the worst effects of a changing climate. In Canada, 2024 was a year of unprecedented climate related property damage, over $7B worth.

That said, we must realize that, even if we could reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels to zero today, the earth’s temperature would continue rising for many decades accompanied by increasing weather-related risks. While carbon emissions reduction efforts are still critical to maintaining a livable future, steps must be taken now to prepare for the increasing hazards due to anticipated weather extremes both now and in the future.

Working with community stakeholders, City of Brampton staff have prepared the “Climate Ready Brampton” plan to address anticipated climate impacts on the City’s infrastructure, economy and natural systems. This plan defines the blueprint for action that will better equip the City to manage the changes and increase resiliency to recover quickly from adverse climate impacts.

The development of the plan has gone through three phases over the past 2 years, Research, Investigation, and Development. During the Research phase, staff along with expert consultants reviewed how Brampton’s climate has changed over the past 75 years. During the investigation phase the team solicited external expertise along with stakeholder engagement to define future climate scenarios, assess climate risks, and identify prioritized climate adaptation actions. The plan also includes financial cost analysis of those actions compared to doing nothing. Finally, the plan outlines performance targets, collaborative implementation approaches, and a framework for monitoring and reporting.

How climate events will affect Brampton
How climate events will affect Brampton

The plan identifies 6 Goals, 5 Themes, 15 Objectives with 55 supporting actions.

Climate Ready Brampton Vision

“Brampton will be a climate leader fostering resilient, low-carbon, and adaptable communities, with thriving natural systems, climate-ready infrastructure, and a robust economy that advances equity, innovation, and quality of life both now and for future generations”.

Climate Ready Brampton Goals

  1. Brampton is adaptable to predicted climate change impacts using best available science and climate data,
  2. Climate action will prioritize the most vulnerable people, communities, and places in the City,
  3. Climate resilience is the new normal where city staff, partners, neighbourhoods and generations work to protect each other,
  4. Climate change preparation adaptation occurs within the context of a robust economy,
  5. Climate resilience actions become more efficient and effective through collaboration and strong partnerships,
  6. Progress is transparently reported against clear, measurable targets.

Climate Ready Brampton Themes and Objectives

  1. Collaborative Leadership,
    • Brampton will be a leader in climate resilience
    • Municipal staff are prepared, informed and have all required tools
  2. Protected and Connected People,
    • Equity-deserving groups are prioritized,
    • Moving around the city is safe and simple in all conditions,
    • People are prepared for climate disasters through emergency planning
  3. Resilient Infrastructure and Buildings
    • Essential infrastructure is resilient
    • Community is safe in their daily life,
    • Buildings and homes are climate proof
  4. Resilient and Healthy Natural Systems,
    • Naturalized spaces help protect Brampton from climate impacts
    • Natural systems are healthy and intact
  5. Community Involvement and Communication
    • Brampton is prepared for climate emergencies
    • Emergency communications keep the community safe
    • The community is involved in climate action

The 55 actions are assigned to each of the objectives noted above. They cover different aspects from addressing climate risk, to protection and enhancement of forests and wetlands. Here a just a few examples:

  • Hiring a Climate Risk Officer,
  • Staff training on climate adaptation strategies and risk assessment,
  • Climate emergency preparedness training,
  • Creating a climate toolkit for businesses,
  • Vector-borne disease management,
  • Extreme weather traffic impact notification system,
  • Shading standards for public spaces including bike parking and bus stops,
  • Tree planting and natural cover target including survivability rates
  • Heat management plan for public events
  • Development of an urban agriculture strategy
  • Look for opportunities to acquire additional land for greenspace
  • Enhanced building codes for energy efficiency and resilience to severe weather,
  • Minimize hard surface ground cover that impedes water absorption,
  • Provide flood plain models to assess flood risk,
  • Implement emergency water supply program

Please visit the City’s website for more information and to download the draft plan. Provide your comments to growgreen@brampton.ca by January 15th.

Record Severe Weather Costs Canada $7 Billion: TAF’s 2023 Emissions Report Show Us What’s Next

GTHA Emissions Map

Summer 2024 shatters records for severe weather damage: Over $7 billion in insured losses from floods, fires and hailstorms.” That’s the headline from a recent Insurance Bureau of Canada blog post. The post highlights the unprecedented number and severity of natural disasters across the country that resulted in a 406% increase in the number of property insurance claims compared to the 20-year average. “These events are escalating at a shocking rate and Canada is simply not prepared”, said Celyeste Power, IBC president.

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BEA Attends Litter Reduction Charter Celebration Event

Litter Reduction Charter Signing Event attendees

On October 22nd, BEA members Polly and Chaya attended the Litter Reduction Charter Launch in the City Hall Conservatory. Ruth and Christina also attended from Heart Lake Turtle Troopers. There was an opportunity to meet with many of the dignitaries who attended including, Commissioner Bill Boyes, Wards 1&5 Councillor Rowena Santos, Wards 2&6 Councillor Navjit Kaur Brar, and Wards 9&10 Councillor Gurpartap Singh Toor.

Those who visited the BEA table were interested and engaged in Brampton’s environmental issues, particularly the Emerald Energy from Waste expansion proposal and Brampton’s Mobility Plan that focuses on Sustainable Transportation including, walking, cycling, transit and other micro mobility options such as e-bikes and e-scooters. All in all it was a good event for the BEA.

Contact the City of Brampton’s Community Safety & Well-being Office for further details about the Litter Reduction Charter and the plan to make Brampton a litter-free city.

Community Discusses Risks of Waste Burning in Brampton

Emerald Energy from Waste Community meeting 2024 10 09

This past Wednesday evening about 50 Brampton residents met in the community room at Century Gardens Recreation Centre to learn more about Emerald Energy from Waste’s proposal to become the largest waste burning facility in Canada. The event was jointly organized by Environmental Defence, Sierra Club Peel, and Brampton Environmental Alliance. Miranda Baksh introduced the speakers and moderated a Q & A panel session, that was followed by open questions from the audience.

First to speak was Karen Wirsig, a Researcher specializing in plastics and Senior Program Manager with Environmental Defence. Karen noted that the Emerald plant is located just inside Brampton’s southeast border at 7656 Bramalea Road. It currently burns 182,000 tonnes of waste each year. The company has a proposal pending Ontario government approval that would allow it to more than quadruple capacity to 900,000 tonnes per year or about 1/3 of all of the waste generated in Ontario. That means the plant would need to truck in garbage from all over the Province in order to support its business model.

Karen shared several concerns about the current plant and its proposed expansion. First, while the company promotes energy from waste as a climate friendly way of producing energy, it is anything but. It turns out that burning waste produces 50% more carbon emissions per kilowatt-hour generated than coal and almost 3X the emissions compared with burning natural gas to create electricity.

Second, the household waste stream contains about 13% plastics, 5% building material including preserved wood, 3% Textiles, including a high proportion of man-made materials, and 9% of other household waste including e-waste. When burned, these products produce a range of chemicals that are known to cause health problems including cancer, endocrine system disruption, and respiratory issues such as asthma. The company’s own data forecasts, that, with the expansion, the levels of these chemicals in the plant’s discharge would significantly exceed both Provincial and Federal guidelines by 107 to 375%!

Third, the emissions from the plant’s stacks are self-monitored by the company. They are subject to inspection by the Province but that happens only once per year, and then only after the plant has been notified of the coming inspection.

Finally, more than 50% of the waste stream is food and other organic waste. As anyone knows who has ever tried to burn left-overs on a campfire, food waste doesn’t burn well because of its high moisture content. It sizzles, smolders and works to put out the flames. The same is true in a waste burn facility. Often natural gas must be added to the waste stream in order to drive off the moisture and keep the material burning. In other words, burning waste is neither good for human health nor environmentally friendly.

Next to speak was Emily Alfred, a Senior Waste Campaigner at the Toronto Environmental Alliance, (TEA). Emily said that only about 30-40% of Ontario’s waste is residential, the rest comes from industry and institutional sources that have a much poorer track record of separating, recycling and reusing waste. Emily’s message is that there are better ways to deal with garbage than burning it. It just takes political will and leadership to define appropriate policy.

For instance, as stated, about half of the waste stream in Ontario is organics and burning it is very inefficient. Putting it in landfill is also problematic as buried organic material breaks down into methane in a process known as anerobic digestion. This methane is toxic, flammable, and a greenhouse gas more powerful than carbon dioxide. Food waste can, however, be safely composted and returned to the land as rich soil for food production. Several US states including, California, New York, Connecticut and Vermont, as well as cities such as New York NY, Austin TX and Vancouver BC have banned organic waste from being burned or put in landfill thus forcing municipalities to compost instead.

Emily explained that plastics represent the second largest percentage of waste material much of which can recycled or reused if separated properly. A significant amount of plastics pollution comes from food and beverage containers. Currently Ontario and Manitoba are the only two Provinces in the country that do not have a non-alcoholic beverage container deposit system.

A recent report by Eunomia Research & Consulting Inc. finds that the most effective way for Ontario to achieve a 90% recovery rate for beverage containers is by expanding the province’s existing deposit system operated by The Beer Store by providing Ontarians with more retail and depot locations to take back bottles and cans to receive a 10-cent refund for each container.

Ontario’s current rate of non-alcoholic beverage container recycling is 51% according to the Canadian Beverage Association, (CBA). The CBA also reports that over 80% of Ontarians are favourably disposed to expanding container deposits to non-alcoholic beverage containers. Despite these facts, this past July, the Ontario government shelved plans to implement a deposit return system for non-alcoholic containers citing “significant costs” of the system that would have to be borne by small businesses and families at a time when living costs are so high. The fallacy of this argument is that we all bear the cost of pollution and environmental destruction it’s just that these costs are less immediate and less visible.

Emily also indicated that textiles represent a significant portion of the waste stream and should be recycled or reused. For instance, old clothes can be donated or swapped. Buy used instead of new clothing. Alter or repair clothes that are damaged or no longer fit. Shred unrepairable items for use as cloth rags or for stuffing pillows. Stained fabric can be redyed and used for useful things like headbands or handkerchiefs. Natural fabrics like cotton can be composted. And if you are installing new carpet in your home, use an installer like, Home Depot, Alexanian, S&R Flooring Concepts, or Golia Flooring which participate in the Aspera Carpet Recycling Program in Ontario.

Finally, if you live in a condominium or multi-unit apartment building, contact Emily at Toronto Environment Alliance for tips on how you can start a recycling program in your building.

Emerald panel discussion
Miranda Baksh introduces panel members Amisha Moorjani, Steve Kirby, and Divya Arora.

The session wrapped up with Miranda moderating a panel discussion including Amisha Moorjani – business owner and BEA Board member, Steve Kirby – business owner and member of Sierra Club Peel’s Executive Committee, Divya Arora – Community Climate Council founding member and Youth Outreach Coordinator for David Suzuki Foundation as well as Karen and Emily. Steve and Amisha recently delegated to Peel Region and Brampton City Councils about the Emerald proposal. Both Steve and Amisha have taken steps to reduce the amount of waste from their business even though these efforts result in higher operational costs. For them it is a question of doing the right thing.

If you think, as we do, that the Emerald proposal is a mistake, take a few minutes to write a personal letter to your local MPP. But please do it soon as the Environment Minister will likely be rendering their verdict within the next few weeks.

MPP Contact information
MPP Contact information

Litter Reduction Charter Launch & Signing Event

PAL trash shot

In the summer of 2023, BEA member Bill Godfrey pitched an idea to Brampton City Council that the City should develop a strategy to become the first litter-free city in Canada. Bill is the founder of a local community group, People Against Littering. Since 2019 he and his enthusiastic volunteers have organized and participated in hundreds of clean-up events across the City and have documented picking up over 3,000,000 pieces of litter! Despite these efforts litter remains a persistent problem that is both an eye-sore and a health hazard to visitors and residents alike.

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BEA delegates to Peel Regional Council

Regional Council

The Emerald Energy from Waste facility has been operating in Peel since 1992, initially built and operated by Algonquin Power. The Region cancelled a waste burning contract with Algonquin in 2012 but the facility was sold to Emerald shortly thereafter and has been continuing operations by consuming waste from industrial, commercial and institutional sources.

In 2016, the Region considered building its own waste burning facility but cancelled those plans due to concerns about the pollution a second facility would emit. Instead it embarked on a plan to divert 75% of its waste by 2034, through a combination of improved policies, procedures and, technologies related to waste reduction, reuse, recycling and, composting.

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