Canada produces an enormous amount of waste. In 2020, total solid waste across the country hit 36 million tonnes.

Most of this garbage, known in the industry as residual waste, ends up in landfills or incinerators. Aside from shrinking landfill space and the environmental toll of burning trash, this approach to waste management is unsustainable and irresponsible.

This is far from only a Canadian issue. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 12 calls for substantially reducing waste worldwide through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse by 2030. However, Canada is lagging behind.

The European Union set a target of recycling at least 50 per cent of household waste by 2020. Wales, one of Europe’s recycling success stories, had already surpassed its own 64 per cent target and is now on track to reach 70 per cent.

Meanwhile, Canada’s national waste diversion rate hovers around 27 per cent. Federal efforts aim to reduce total waste by 30 per cent by 2030, alongside regulations targeting plastic waste.

While reducing the amount of waste Canadians produce remains essential, improving what happens to the waste we already generate is part of this process. Municipalities can increase the proportion of waste diverted from landfills and incinerators and to recycling and composting.

Rethinking curbside collection

My co-researcher, economics PhD student Kailun Cao, and I wondered whether municipalities could improve diversion simply by optimizing their........

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