TORONTO - Contractors, renovators, and developers soon won't have to worry about separating their construction and demolition garbage. A new facility slated for fall 2012 operation in Toronto's west end will take care of that for them.

Houston, Texas-based company Waste Management announced that this new facility will be one of the most technologically advanced of its kind in Toronto that will process waste materials from building construction and demolition (C&D) sites.

The plant which was acquired in late 2011 and will undergo extensive upgrades. The total investment is expected to be $16 million, and 20 new full-time jobs will be created at the facility.

The semi-automated single stream recycling plant will process an estimated 87,000 tonnes of C&D material in its first full year. As the facility will be equipped to sort waste materials, contractors and developers will no longer have to separate at source, resulting in increased recovery rates.

Located south of the QEW at New Toronto Street, the facility will serve western Toronto and the southern parts of Peel Region. Brad Muter, WM's Vice President for Eastern Canada, noted that the site was selected "because continued strong construction activity and population growth are anticipated in Toronto."

The C&D facility will support local and provincial government efforts to divert these materials from landfill.

"That's a vision we share," Muter noted. "Today, we manage waste for its resource potential." The new C&D facility will allow WM to mine these materials for their valuable recyclable content. One of WM's sustainability goals is to triple the volume of recyclable materials being processed by 2020.

In addition, the company has launched an online tool that will help building planners, contractors, architects and owners measure their C&D recycling, tabulate total diversion rates and provide documentation to support LEED® certification.

The Diversion and Recycling Tracking tool (DART) is available across the US and Canada, operates online and is accessible 24-hours a day.

At every construction site, builders have an opportunity to divert a variety of C&D materials, such as wood, rock, metal, cardboard, plastic, shingles, concrete, fiberboard and paneling. With so many substances to manage, calculating total diversion has traditionally been a time-consuming process. DART technology makes it easy to measure and improve performance.

"With the DART tool, contractors and architects can really zero in on what they are diverting and where there is opportunity to improve. We are not just tracking performance for the present, but also setting benchmarks to be surpassed in the future," Muter explained.

For more information about the DART tool, visit www.wm.com/DART

TOP PHOTO: Recycling sort line (courtesy of Waste Management)