The Trashiad

As fictional organized crime boss Tony Soprano likes to say, “I’m in the waste management business. Everybody immediately assumes you’re mobbed up. It’s a stereotype, and it’s offensive.” Links between the garbage business and mob activity have been well founded, as exposed by Kenneth Prendergast in his history of Cleveland, Ohio, and more famously by Rick Cowan in his undercover sting operation in New York City, to name just a couple of the most celebrated cases in North America. Cowan’s exposé is credited with busting the mob’s hold on garbage and resulting in the big business industry that has since developed.

There is no denying that garbage is big business. According to a January 2013 Conference Board of Canada report, Canada generates 34 million tonnes of waste per year or 777 kilograms per person, well above the average of 17 industrialized countries, with only Australia and the United States generating more waste per capita. Waste disposal companies attempt...