Turtle Island Recycling Corporation
The skinny Won bidding war to scoop Windsor’s privatization contract last year, but stirred controversy when the company didn’t come clean on violations of the Environmental Protection Act in bid documents. Workers recently approached CUPE about organizing a union. Turtle owns a majority interest in EIL Environmental, a hazardous waste disposal operation in Edmonton bought in 2007 with financing by Whitecastle Private Equity Partners Fund LP.
Odds Already has contract for Etobicoke curbside pickup, but lost the York contract after amalgamation when a city review found bringing pickup back in-house is cheaper.
Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd.
The skinny The third-largest waste disposal company on the continent, operates in six provinces and a dozen U.S. states. Has been busy cornering the private garbage market, acquiring BFI in Canada as well as Waste Services, Inc. and IESI. As a condition of approval for the takeover of Waste Services Inc., Progressive was forced by the federal Competition Bureau last year to divest some commercial operations valued at $18.5 million. Nearly half the company’s employees in Canada are unionized. Company director Douglas Knight was appointed president of St. Joseph Media Inc., owner of Toronto Life, in 2006.
Odds Council has disqualified the company from the bidding – in the interest of “transparency” – because of the recent hiring of Geoff Rathbone, former head of waste management for the city. Can you say lawsuit?
Miller Waste Systems Inc.
The skinny Part of the Miller Group of companies that got its start in construction and road paving, Miller cracked the municipal waste stream with a contract for waste disposal in Markham back in the 1960s. Has some 400 collection vehicles and contracts for curbside pickup in Peel and Halton regions. Miller also provides municipal waste services in York, Richmond Hill, Pickering, Ajax and Vaughan, as well as Manitoba and the Maritimes.
Odds Operates the largest waste transfer facility in the GTA, a 94,000-square-foot plant on 5 hectares in Markham, as well as a recycling plant and yard waste compost facility on 14 hectares north of Toronto.
Waste Management of Canada
The skinny The Canadian subsidiary of Houston, Texas-based Waste Management Inc., it’s the biggest in North America, operating in nine provinces and managing 18 landfill sites, 20 recycling facilities and six methane-to-gas plants. The bad news: WMC’s U.S. parent was accused of violating anti-trust laws in the late 80s for colluding with other waste haulers to split up contracts in Florida. The company locked out 900 unionized employees at its biggest plant in California for a month in 2007 during a contract dispute.
Odds Owns the contract for recycling and waste disposal services for the Bank of Canada.
Republic Services, Inc.
The skinny A merger in 2008 with Allied Waste Industries made Republic the second-largest private garbage firm in North America. Along with main rival Waste Management Inc., it controls half the waste management business in the U.S. Has a history of run-ins with the EPA, though, including a $1 million fine for contraventions of the Clean Water Act. The Canuck arm of the company has a contractual history with the city: was signed in 2001 to haul waste to Republic’s Carlton Farms landfill in Michigan when capacity at Keele Valley was running out.
Odds Toronto got tangled in a court case with Republic in 2006 when the company advised that it would no longer accept our biosolids, about 20 truckloads a day, at its Michigan landfill.
