Toronto could soon get trash vacuum tunnels and garbage trains

Toronto could be considering new ways to dispose of trash, including vacuum tube systems linking networks of condo towers and trains packed with garbage, carting waste out of the city.

Lobbyists have floated two new ideas to City Hall that could, together, revolutionize how Toronto disposes of waste and potentially take hundreds of trucks off the roads.

CN Rail and South Korean waste technology specialists Kiturami Environmental Technologies have independently registered on the City's lobbyist registrar to pitch their ideas for waste management in Toronto. 

The two lobbying files, first reported on by Matt Elliott in his City Hall Watcher newsletter, could see a network of vacuum tubes allowing condo dwellers to directly dispose of household waste from within their units.

Lobbyists for Kiturami Environmental Technologies have pitched what the company describes as an "Automated vacuum waste collection system" consisting of "sealed pipes [which] carry food waste from suites to a central tank in new condos."

The technology is already well-established in South Korea, where Kiturami markets the innovative waste-disposal tubes as the "EcoHome" in-house food waste vacuum system.

Kiturami's CEO and COO are both named as lobbyists on the file, though no other details about the pitch have been made public.

CN Rail has pitched its own waste solution for Toronto that could one day work in conjunction with Kiturami's vacuum system.

Lobbyists for the national rail operator have registered with the City to pitch their plan to build transit for trash.

Currently, garbage trucks make the long-haul, 200-kilometre trip west of Toronto to dispose of the city's trash at Green Lane landfill, near St. Thomas, Ont. 

That's a lot of trucks moving a never-ending procession of waste, but CN thinks they could move the garbage more efficiently using trains.

CN explains in its lobbying file that it "would like to present and propose the transportation of municipal solid waste by rail to the City of Toronto."

The rail operator notes that this service is already in use in other large cities like New York, where freight cars move larger trash loads at improved efficiency and lower emissions than large fleets of garbage trucks.