In early 2017, the Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF), Raleigh, North Carolina, and the Ontario Waste Management Association (OWMA), Brampton, Ontario, convened in Ontario, Canada, to explore the work EREF is undertaking in the United States and discuss the development of a Canadian research platform that would meet the needs of the country’s waste management sector. Waste management professionals, municipal officials and regulators traveled from across the country to participate in this event and work together on finding ways to better coordinate efforts to conduct and promote academic research.
Research not a primary function of the OWMA and does not extend beyond Ontario into other Canadian jurisdictions. As a research and sustainability organization like EREF does not exist in Canada, the OWMA concluded that an agreement with EREF would provide a platform for research that would benefit all Canadian provinces and territories. The platform is designed to:
- provide a neutral platform for private and public organizations across the country to collaborate on issues of joint interests;
- develop a structure that many Canadian companies with connections to the United States already have a familiarity with;
- provide linkages to other North American research efforts; and
- facilitate, oversee and fund academic research is EREF’s core competency.
EREF is in the process of finalizing its Canadian charitable status.
One outcome of this meeting was the creation of an EREF Canadian Steering Committee, a volunteer-based group representing a range of sectors across Canada’s waste industry. This Steering Committee will meet two to three times per year to identify research and data needs, recommend projects to address these needs, review proposals and reports and assist with development efforts in Canada.
The Steering Committee convened for the first time March 8 to discuss how it will operate and pinpoint and prioritize solid waste issues affecting Canada. Outcomes of the meeting include the identification of additional Canadian entities to participate on the committee and key areas for research. Organics management will be the primary focus of initial research initiatives, with additional near-term issues including recycling and greenhouse gas quantification.
Currently, the committee is comprised of individuals from Waste Connections of Canada, Vaughan, Ontario; OWMA; Molok North America, Mount Forest, Ontario; GHD, Waste Management, Houston; region of Peel, Ontario; region of Waterloo, Ontario; city of Toronto; University of Brunswick; and Green For Life Environmental (GFL), Vaughan, Ontario.
In addition to the creation of EREF’s Canadian Steering Committee, the foundation increased Canadian funding through an endowed scholarship. Located in Ontario, Canada, Ice River Springs is a beverage company with a plastics recycling facility and closed-loop production. Given the company’s sustainability focus, Ice River Springs has funded the Ice River Springs Masters Scholarship for Sustainability since 2016, a scholarship awarded to masters students enrolled full time in Canada or a U.S. academic institution located on the East Coast. The first recipient, Jillian Treadwell, a 2017 McGill University graduate, conducted quantitative research focused on organic waste and phosphorus recycling and the development of a scenario-based model.
In 2017, the scholarship was awarded to James Souder, a masters student at Yale University specializing in industrial ecology and green design with a deeper focus on waste management and pollution prevention.