---
title: Ontario Set a 2023 Target for Household Food Waste. The Plants Are Being Finished Now.
description: Ontario targeted 70% diversion of household food waste by 2023. The York Region plant contracted to process it enters service in early 2027.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
updated: 2026-08-01T07:35:26.264Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/york-region-food-waste-biofuel-plant-135m-financing
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/convertus-york-biofuel-facility-79202.webp
categories: Green Tech
content_type: News
region: Ontario
publication: Sovereign Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

Most of the food waste York Region collects still becomes compost. In 2025 the region gathered more than 108,000 tonnes of green bin material from over 424,000 households. Each city or town delivers it to a transfer station, and from there it travels on to contracted composting facilities elsewhere in Ontario. Most is processed with oxygen, as compost. Only a small portion goes through anaerobic digestion, the oxygen-free process that yields biogas.

Ontario's food and organic waste policy statement asks for more than that. It sets a target of 70% waste reduction and resource recovery for food and organic waste from single-family dwellings in urban settlement areas [by 2023](https://www.ontario.ca/page/food-and-organic-waste-policy-statement), with further targets of 50% and 70% falling due in 2025 for smaller settlements, multi-unit buildings and a range of facilities.

The capacity to meet those targets is only now being completed. In January 2023 York Regional Council awarded a 20-year contract to process the region's green bin material at a new biofuel facility, tying it to the region's own goal of net-zero carbon by 2050. That facility sits at East Gwillimbury and belongs to Convertus Group, which said on 31 July that it had closed $135 million in project financing for it. Power Sustainable Infrastructure Credit provided the money, with Selkirk Advisory Group advising Convertus. Commissioning is expected to begin later this year, with service starting in early 2027.

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