STAFF REPORTER
Mayor David Miller broke his silence on Toronto's flawed green bin program yesterday.
Well, sort of.
After repeated efforts to interview him by telephone, the Star caught up to Miller yesterday at an event celebrating the construction of the new – green – Corus Entertainment building on the waterfront.
Miller stayed on script, backing a city official's assurance the green bin program works.
"I stand by that response," Miller said, referring to Monday's statement from the head of Toronto's waste management program, defending the multi-million-dollar program meant to divert and turn organic material into compost.
A Star investigation found the opposite, revealing on the weekend that thousands of tonnes of organics were dumped in a gravel pit, landfilled in Quebec or stockpiled in city transfer stations long before the workers' strike.
This spring, Ontario's environment ministry had imposed severe limitations on Toronto's two largest processors for odour issues. And laboratory tests found the compost created by city-contracted facilities was unfinished, low-grade and toxic to plants.
Asked if he supported and would co-operate with a provincial review of municipal organics programs, Miller said, "we always co-operate with the province."
Beyond that, he continued his silence on an issue that has created an outcry in the city.
"Here is the province doing a review that the mayor won't even talk about," Councillor Brian Ashton observed.
At yesterday's event, Miller and other dignitaries spoke glowingly about the new green building, praising Corus for believing and investing in Toronto's waterfront.
When the speeches were done, reporters peppered Miller with questions about everything but the building. They hammered him on the municipal workers' strike. Where has Miller been? Why won't he push councillors to give up their pay raise when the city won't give the strikers an increase?
Facing a phalanx of television cameras, Miller thanked the people of Toronto for their patience and said he wanted to focus on the children, especially underprivileged children, who were losing the chance to swim in city pools and join in city camps.
Questioned about the Star's findings of serious problems with the green bin program, Miller said Geoff Rathbone, the city's solid waste manager, had already given a "comprehensive response."
Asked again why he would not comment, Miller responded, "We gave you an extremely comprehensive response that your newspaper chose not to run in full. It's all there."
He gave the same answer when asked how, as a long-time opponent of burning garbage, he felt about Toronto's largest compost processor, Orgaworld, sending "residual" plastics to a Detroit-area incinerator.
Rathbone emailed the Star on Monday.
"The disposal of plastic residue is the responsibility of our contractors," he wrote. "While our original Orgaworld contract, issued prior to the purchase of the Green Lane landfill site, simply required that they use a licensed waste disposal site, which included some incineration, our contracts since the purchase specify that our residue must go to our own landfill."
The Star had an extensive interview with Orgaworld's founder, Henk Kaskens, during a tour at the London, Ont., facility. Kaskens said the plant had sent its plastics to the Detroit incinerator. The Star checked with the Detroit agency that handles waste issues and it confirmed Orgaworld sent residuals there.
Rathbone also wrote: "Despite considerable investigation, your reporter found no evidence anywhere that Toronto's Green Bin organic material was going directly to landfill or incineration. This was not mentioned in the article."
The Quebec environment ministry told the Star rotten organics shipped by truck from Toronto had been sent to a landfill in Quebec.
Rathbone also contested questions about Toronto's diversion rates. "Toronto stands by its figure of 44% diversion in 2008," he wrote.
The city had previously said the 44 per cent figure included all recyclables, not just organics. The city website says 30 per cent of organics are diverted. Waste Diversion Ontario, which oversees recycling, puts Toronto's organics diversion rate at 18 per cent.
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