Created: 31.01.2026 Last Updated: 05.02.2026

Public Waste Decision Insights (PWDI)

This project supports two public-facing surveys for Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), designed to explore public understanding of waste planning, perceptions of fairness, and the institutional dynamics that shape long-term infrastructure outcomes.

Purpose

Municipal and regional waste infrastructure decisions — such as the siting or expansion of incinerators, landfills, or transfer stations — often unfold over long timelines. By the time the public is consulted, many of the key parameters have already been shaped by internal planning frameworks, risk assumptions, or regulatory limitations.

PWDI focuses on the “decision framing” process, when invisible choices begin to shape:

  • Which waste management options are considered “realistic”

  • How environmental or health risks are prioritized

  • When and how public input is invited

  • Whether flexibility is preserved or lost over time

This approach allows us to compare how community members, planners, and impacted groups frame the same decisions differently — and to highlight points of convergence and divergence.

Survey Structure

Two harmonized survey instruments were developed for this Toronto-area study:

Short Survey (5–7 minutes)

Designed for general public outreach across Toronto and the GTA, focusing on:

  • Awareness of infrastructure decisions

  • Perceived impacts (e.g. pollution, traffic, health)

  • Trust in oversight

  • Key planning values (e.g. fairness, sustainability, cost)

Full Survey (10–15 minutes)

Designed for participants who wish to share more detailed input, including:

  • Perceptions of environmental risk and planning trade-offs

  • Personal or community experience with past infrastructure

  • Beliefs about fairness, consent, and public process

  • Open-ended reflections on governance and system priorities

Both surveys include a mix of structured questions and open-text response fields, designed for mobile, print, and offline distribution.

Geographic Focus

This round of PWDI is focused on Toronto and surrounding communities, including Peel, York, Durham, and Halton regions.

Data Collection & Analysis

  • Participation is voluntary and anonymous

  • No names, addresses, or personal identifiers are collected

  • Surveys are distributed via community networks, outreach partners, and open channels

Quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Qualitative responses will be thematically coded to identify shared concerns, divergent perspectives, and underlying assumptions about infrastructure, fairness, and governance.

Planned Outputs

Both surveys will close for participation on March 19th, 2026.

A detailed published report will be available by the end of May, 2026.

  • A cross-survey summary report

  • A brief on framing and trade-off patterns

  • Visual summaries of alignment/divergence in responses

  • A public methods and limitations statement

The report will be published on our website.

PWDI surveys use voluntary participation and self-selection, which means:

  • Results are not statistically representative

  • Certain groups may be over- or under-represented

  • Findings should be interpreted as directional and exploratory, not predictive

Independence & Non-Affiliation

PWDI is unaffiliated with developers, vendors, or political organizations.

Its goal is to help communities, planners, and institutions better understand how decisions are framed — not what decisions should be made.

Take the survey