Report to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment on issues surrounding waste management in the Greater Toronto Area

50 Pages·1992·7.7 MB·English

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(unless otherwise indicated), which is held by the Queen's Printer for Ontario. It
may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes if credit is given and Crown
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The Metropoll Report is confidential and is
solely for the benefit and use of
subscribers. Subscribers agree to respect and•
maintain the confidential nature of the Report
and agree that the Report will not be released
to any third party or to the public or to the
media, nor will It be reproduced in whole or in
part without the express written consent of
Envwonics. Any such requests must be made
in writing to:
Environics Research Group,
45 Charles Street East, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, M4Y 152.
Introduction 7
Detailed Report 9
Ii
Assessment of the Garbage Disposal Problem
Senousness of the Problem 11
Source of Awareness of Problem 11
Action Dealing with the Waste Management Problem 12
Principles of Waste Management 13
Disposal Within or Near Municipal Boundaries 13
Awareness of Provincial Government Policy 14
Approval of Provincial Government Policy 15
Exporting Waste 16
Incineration of Garbage 17
Landfill Site Selection Process 18
Approval of Government Policy with Full Assessment 18
Most Credibility 19
21
Methodology
Cuestionnaire
Statistical Tables
IntroductioN
Environics Research Group Limited is pleased to present this report to the
Ontario Ministry of the Environment regarding public opinion in the Greater
Toronto flea on issues surrounding waste management The survey was
conducted between July28 and August 14, 1992 among 1,560 residents,
otiS, oftheGreaterTorontoAxea. Thisincludesan oversampie
of 160 residents of Durham and York regions. A total of thirteen questions
were asked on behalf of the Ministry and these were cross-
tabulated against all of the demographic and regional variables which are
part of the standard METROPOLL survey.
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Seriousness of the Problem
Residents of the Greater TorontoArea continue to Is Waste Disposal A Serious Problem? GTA
regard waste and/or the garbage disposal prob-
lem to be a serious problem. Over half of them
(57% down five points since 1990) consider this
to be a very serious problem and a fUrther 35 Very serious problem
percent (up five points( consider it to be some-
what serious. Only seven percent (unchanged)
consider this to be not very (6%) or not at all (1%) Somewhat serious problem
serious. This problem is most likely to be seen as
very serious by residents of Durham (10%) and
York (71%) regions. It is also notable that older Not wry serious problem
people are most likely to think this is a very serious
problem. Fully 68 percent of those over the age
of 55 consider this to be very serious compared to Not at all serious problem 3
just 43 percent of those between the ages of 15
and 24. 1990
I
DK/NA >2
1992
Source of Awareness of Problem 12
As was the case in 1990. Greater Toronto Are(cid:18)
residents are most likely to have become aware of
the garbage disposal problem through sources
such as daily newspapers (53%, down three Source of Awareness of Waste Disposal Problem CIA
points) and television (S 1%, up seven points).
Other sources of awareness include personal
experience (19%. up three points), radio (17%,
dawn five points), neighbours or word of mouth Daily newspapers
(7%). seeing dumps or landfill sites nearby (5%, Television
up two points), the Blue Box program (4%. up
Personal expenerice
two points), community papers (3%, up one
point), something job related (3%. dawn one Radio
point), fliers (3%. up one point), school (2%) and Neighbours I word of mouth '7
protest and demonstrations (2%). Mother 18 Dumpsitel landfill seen / nearby
percent mention becoming aware of the prob-
Blue Box program
lem in a variety of other ways.
Community paper
Residents of Durham and York regions are much Job related
more likely to claim that they became aware of
this problem as a result of seeing dumpsites or
School
lmanodrfeil Ll ikseitelys ton earby (le1 a7m9€ eeda achb)o. utT thheey parroeb alelsmo Protests / demos
1990
from community newspapers (10% and 8%. re- Is •
There is also a tendency for older DK / 1992
people, university graduatesand those wIth higher
incomes to have become aware of the problem
through daily newspaper reports. Younger peo-
ple and those with lower levels of education are
more likely to have learned about this from televi-
sion.
lnpl ShIulLthllIi
11
Action Dealkig with the Waste
Maiagement Problem
What Is Being Done? CIA
Six in ten Greater Toronto flea residents are
aware of some sort of action being taken to deal
wIth the waste management problem. A plural-
Search for landill sites
ity (36%) are aware of a search being carried out
for Iandfll sites. Other things named include Blue Box / Municipal 14
Blue Box and rrunicoal recycling (23%). other recycling
efforts to reduce, recycle and reuse (12%), com- Other efforts to reduce.
mittees and studies (2%) and comnposting (2%). recycle, reuse
Mottier 5 percent mention other steps being Comnmittees/ Studies .2
taken. Oiier a third of area residents (34%) are
not aware of anything being done to deal with Compasflng 2
the waste management problem in the Greater :
Toronto Area and six percent have no opinion. Nothing / not aware of 34
anything "
Other;.:
These resuks do not difYer significantly between .5
the regions. Younger people and those with less
than a high school education are more likely to
nc* be aware of any steps being taken to deal
with the problem. graduates and
those with higher incomes are more likely to be
aware of the search for landfill sites.
n
11 IlIkUIIhlIl*
Prk$Inflfl
ksmeat
Disposal Within or Near Municipal
Boundaries Principle of Local Disposal
Over two-thirds ofGreaterlorontoArea residents GTA
(70%) either strongly (34%) or somewhat (36%) OK/NA 3
agree that one of the principles governing the Strongly
isaie of waste management should be that each disagree 4
municipality must deal with the wastes it gener-
ates within or near its boundaries. Just 27
percent either somewhat 113%) or strongly (14%) Somewhat
disagree with this principle. Those who are most
disagree
likelyto agree strongly with this principle inckde
13
residents of Durham (46%). York region (40%)
and Peel region (40%). Residents of Metro To-
ronto itself are significantly less likely to express
strong agreement (31%). Other groups who
stronglyagree with this principle inctide commu-
nity college graduates. those with annual house- Somewhat agree 36
hold incomes of less than 520.000 and those
who work outside of Metro.
13
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Awareness of Provincial Government
Policy Aware of Local Disposal as a
Government Policy
A majority of Greater Toronto Area residents
(54%) say they either definitely were aware of GTA
the policy described as follows (44%) or that they DK/NA
think they know of it (10%):
The provincial government has adopted
a policy that wUl require communities in
the Greater Toronto flea to be respon-
sible for the waste they generate. This
will mean that people will now have to
deal with their own garbage within or
near their own region. In other words,
residents of Peel region will dispose of
their garbage within Peel residents of
Durham region will dispose of their gar-
bage in Durham and residents of Metro
Toronto and York re9ons will dispose of
their garbage Wi York region. This policy Yes,thirikso 10
means that muncipalities cannot ship
their garbage far away to other corn mu-
nities and they cannot burn their gar-
bage. Instead, we wIll now have to
learn to waste and reduce, reuse
and recycle more because we will be
living with the consequences if we fail to
do so?
Mother 45 percent were not aware of this
policy
Levels of awareness of the pobcy do not differ
significantly by region or even by education.
Age isthe greatest determinant. Fully 63 percent
of those over the age of 55 say that they are
definitely aware of this policy. This comparedto
31 percent among those aged 15 to 24.
14