There is No Place Called "Away": Why Exporting Garbage is Not Sustainable or Sensible

This book provides a selection of documents from the lengthy fight about the infamous proposal to convert the Adams Mine - an open pit iron ore mine near Kirkland lake - into a mega dump for Toronto’s garbage. The idea first was seriously proposed in 1989. In 1992, the Ontario government enacted the Waste Management Act, 1992 which was intended to ban waste export and promote local waste disposal in the Greater Toronto Area. By the late 1990s, the project had also been rejected by most of the municipal governments in Toronto, but was kept "alive" by a private sector promoter, Gord McGuinty (second cousin of current Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty). In addition, the project also was supported by Premier Mike Harris and the Progressive Conservatives (PCs) after they were elected to power in 1995. Harris, also was the Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) for North Bay-Nippissing, and he and all the other PC candidates who ran for the PCs in Northeastern Ontario in 1995 were staunch supporters of the project and on the public record, in the media and at public meetings, declaring that support. Accordingly, the project was pushed through, subject to the first and only scoped environmental assessment hearing in Ontario’s history and approved, despite fierce local opposition. In 2004, the Adams Mine Lake Act, 2004 was passed, making the abandoned iron ore mine off-limits as a dump for solid waste, at least until the AMLA is amended. The AMLA revoked all existing approvals for the Adams Mine site as a landfill issued prior to 2004 and is intended to prevent development of the site as a land fill. The legislation also amends the Environmental Protection Act to prevent the use of other lakes that are larger than one hectare in size as landfill sites. This book provides support for the argument that garbage export is not sustainable or sensible as we attempt to move towards a sustainable society.