The partnership between The Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) and U-Pak Disposals began in May 2001, with a new initiative to improve upon the recycling programs that were in place at the time.  Back then, The GTAA was recycling  from the terminals and their facilities, however the recovery rates were very low. U-Pak commitment to The GTAA was to improve their diversion rates (material diverted from landfill to be recycled) to meet the new environmental regulations. 

Once The GTAA’s goals were set – Improved Recycling efforts– U-Pak met with Josie Zafra of the GTAA and the cleaning Company Hurley Corp.  A facility tour and subsequent waste audit were performed to create a baseline for the project. This baseline would allow U-Pak to track any improvements to the diversion of waste from a landfill.  The waste audit, which consisted of a sorting, photographing, weighting and documenting the waste being sent to landfill.. U-Pak’s audit findings and action plan focused on the commodities paper/cardboard, metals, glass, plastics, plant debris, organic food waste, wood, construction aggregates and soils/clean fill all which could be recycled.

Person International Airport being a complex “mini city” was split into two major areas: Operations  and the Terminals.  In the Operational areas (maintenance, snow removal, police and fire stations etc) , U-Pak reviewed the programs that were in place to capture the volume of paper and beverage containers generated by the staff and determined that the current programs were effective and only needed to be re launched with new containers and education to the staff.  Very quickly these area’s were diverting over 90% of this material from the waste.

U-Pak turned the focus towards the Terminals as an area that required improvement.  This waste audit discovered that a considerable amount of recyclable material was being deposited into the waste containers.  Items such as bottles, plastics, , cardboard, food waste, wood, and newsprint were found in the waste stream.  The facility tours uncovered many area’s of the facility which did not have adequate receptacles in place to capture the recycle material. 

The strategies focused on the areas where the materials deposited into the bins were the responsibility of the general public, the patrons of the  Airport  The challenges attached to the public areas were clear.  How do you capture the public’s interest to ensure that the recycle material is deposited into the correct receptacle?  The answer was to keep it simple and readily available.  Hurley Corp was instrumental in their assistance in there procedures and a renewed commitment to focus on diverting as much material as possible by examining and even resorting waste prior to U-Pak’s collection.

Under Josie Zafra’s direction, the GTAA added new containers through out the facilities with an eye on capture of the recycle materials. Airport staff and Hurley began using clear waste bags, so that recycle material being sent out in the waste could be identified, reviewed with the individual departments in an attempt to remedy the situation.

As U-Pak’s last action plan surrounded the capture and diversion of the organic waste from the kitchens and food kiosks through out the Terminal, through the introduction of ergonomically-designed roll carts. Instead of depositing materials into waste buckets with bags, materials would be deposited directly into the roll carts, which are then easily transported to the loading docks without double handlings of the waste.

This one recycling program, proved to be the most significant impact of all the diversion programs, diverting in excess of 40 metric tonnes of food waste away from landfill each month.  Because of the commitment of the GTAA staff, the organic recovery doubled the initial expectations.  Thanks to the new procedures and strategies for waste diversion and the commitment of GTAA employees at the Pearson International,  the diversion rates were lifted from the previous 20 per cent diversion to the current 70+ per cent diversion rate, which is still growing to date.

Today, the GTAA and U-Pak Disposals continue to fine-tune the recycling efforts and strategies, taking the best practices of what was learned at the airport to be put into use elsewhere.

All of these changes have resulted in a significant difference in the volume of material the facilities previously sent to landfill on an annual basis.  An estimated 1900 tonnes per year of material is now being been diverted to recycle streams that previously would have been sent to landfill as waste, proving once again that The GTAA  is truly an environmental partner to the community.