| The Ottawa Citizen |
Friday, May 11, 2007
TORONTO * Four years after Ontario's Liberal government promised it would introduce policies to divert 60 per cent of the province's garbage from landfills, many Ontario businesses are still ignoring laws that require them to reduce, reuse and recycle, according to data obtained by CanWest News Service.
Nearly half of 260 businesses inspected during a blitz between March and October last year did not abide by provincial regulations that require them to separate their garbage for recycling purposes: 20 weren't separating at all while 100 others did only a partial job.
Only about half the firms inspected were properly sorting their garbage for waste diversion purposes.
Ontario has had regulations in place since 1994 that require businesses and institutions over a certain size to conduct waste audits that analyse what can and can't be recycled and to draw up waste-reduction plans. The rules also state explicitly that the owners of the establishments must separate waste according to material type so it can be recycled.
Only 19 of the 260 businesses inspected during last year's sweep of the construction and demolition, hotel-motel, restaurant, large manufacturing, office building and retail sectors were in full compliance with all the regulations.
Environment Minister Laurel Broten said she has made it clear to Ontario's business community that she will enforce regulations that have been ignored for more than a decade.
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