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Oct. 10 - Oct. 17, 2004 |
Cleaning Up Troublesome Waste
Owners of controversial garbage dump in Vaughan working hard on quick removal
By Francesco Riondino
Originally Published: 2004-09-26
Has the removal of the hills of waste on the site of 310 Waste in Vaughan begun? According to the company it has, according to some neighbours it hasn't, but visiting the site one notes that while the northern "hill" has grown somewhat, the southern one has almost disappeared and what is left is neatly divided between wood and other materials.
"We're doing our best," explains Roberto Sansone who runs operations at the transfer company. He shows us invoices from transport companies for dozens of truckloads sent to Ohio.
"Problem is," continues Sansone, "nowadays it's very hard to find truckers willing to take the trip. At the U.S. border, controls have been tightened so much that trucks must wait up to seven hours before clearing customs, and three more on the return trip. An eight hour trip becomes a 16- or 17-hour odyssey, for $200. Many truckers prefer to get paid $150 a day to drive around here, so they can be home by 4:30 pm. Can we blame them?"
The site of 310 Waste lies close to the CN railway, though, and Sansone remarks, "we shall start using freight trains in mid-September; that way we'll ship about 1,000 tons per day, or the equivalent of over 90 trucks."
Early in our conversation, Roberto Sansone was still upset by our previous article where his transfer station had been labelled "an unlicensed landfill", but later warmed up and explained his vision of the waste management problem. "Ever since the Keele Valley landfill closed down, nobody knows where to bring their waste. Trips to the U.S. become increasingly difficult by the day, and after October 1 customs officers will be authorized to send back a whole truck if one plastic bottle or one tire will turn up in the load. Do you know what this means? Today, disposal of one ton of waste costs $95; if we had to check and separate everything the cost would shoot up to over $200."
"When Keele Valley closed," continued Sansone, "many people and companies brought their waste here; we accepted too much of it and are now clearing the situation, but if we hadn't accepted that waste, some people would have simply dumped it along a road. Giving us a truckload costs about $800, so if a company dumps five truckloads along Weston Rd. at night (and you can see that some people do just that, there's numerous waste piles there) they save $4,000... imagine if prices were to double!"
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