Industrial and construction waste exchange launched at Pearson Airport

A group of businesses in the zone around Toronto Pearson International Airport are taking part in a program to exchange their waste and by-products.

The By-Product Materials Exchange program will engage companies within the Pearson Eco Business Zone. Initially, the participating companies will be in manufacturing, construction, infrastructure and waste management. They will use an online tool to identify potential synergies between their byproducts, and then the partners will discuss and negotiate terms.

Environmentalists have long advocated this kind of large-scale “industrial ecology” model where industries in a geographic zone might feed off each other’s by-products to — in the perfect scenario — create an autonomous, zero-waste production zone.

The Pearson airport program is being developed by a group called Partners in Project Green, with help form the University of Waterloo, and the Centre de transfer technologique en ecologie industrielle (CTTEI), a Quebec-based research centre. Other partners include the region of Peel, and the cities of Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga.

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