The Ministry of the Environment has withdrawn its
last charges against the Halton Recycling plant in Newmarket, which were
to go to trial this week.
The plant was built to process organic waste from Toronto's
garbage into a useful byproduct, thus diverting organics from
landfill. There are many good reasons to keep organics out of
landfills, including the problems they cause with methane gas,
odours and leachate, and the importance of adding organics back to
agricultural soils.
However, diverting organics from landfill can cause odours, and
there was substantial conflict over odours between the Town of Newmarket
and the plant. Last year, the
company was fined $155,000 for odour related problems, and it
faced another set of charges for allegedly breaching its
certificate of approval. Now the MOE has admitted that it had no
reasonable prospect of conviction on the additional charges.
