Jamie Baxter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Western University in Ontario and he is the principal investigator for the project. He has been involved in studying community-based social construction of risk, and facility siting issues for over two decades. He has extensive experience with combining qualitative interview and quantitative survey methods on topics ranging from voluntary hazardous facility siting, and pesticide by-law preferences to landfill siting, environmental justice and more recently, community perceptions of waste-to-energy (energy-from-waste) facilities and wind turbines.
Virginia Maclaren is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto and has been involved in several international waste studies in Southeast Asia and local studies in Ontario. Her research interests include NIMBYism and facility siting, extended producer responsibility, the informal waste sector, and recycling. She has a close understanding of Ontario waste issues and sits on the Board of Directors of Waste Diversion Ontario, the organization that is responsible for overseeing Extended Producer Responsibility programs in the province.
Yvonne Rollins is a Geography PhD candidate in the Environment and Sustainability program at Western. She brings to the project prior experience working for the Scottish Government on waste policy issues to meet European Union mandatory goals to divert waste from landfill. Specifically, she supported municipalities to develop plans to establish new waste to energy (WTE) infrastructure.
Yvonne Rollins' PhD thesis is Study
1.
Jason Bayne is a Geography Masters candidate in the Department of Geography at Western University. Jason is interested in examining waste diversion attitudes in and how they relate to Waste to Energy (WTE) in Ontario municipalities. This study will use a survey tool to understand how waste diversion attitudes have changed over time by comparing responses in 2015 with responses in 2014 after a WTE facility became operational. The goal of this research is to understand waste diversion attitudes and the possible policy implications the change in attitudes have for the future of waste disposal in Ontario. Jason’s study is further described in Study 2.
Carrie Warring is a Geography Masters candidate in the Environment, Development and Health stream at Western University. Carrie is interested in identifying the political and economic discourses involved in the decision-making about organic waste separation (e.g., greenbin programs) in Ontario municipalities. The proposed study will likely involve a combination of interviews and document analysis to will shed light on how residential organics disposal governance processes have evolved to produce current and potential future municipal policies. The study will also aim to understand key decision-makers’ perceptions of organic waste disposal as a resource for energy and the challenges of implementing such a system. Carrie's study is described further as Study 4.
Yvonne Ho is in the fourth year of her undergraduate environmental science degree and is conducting a study as for her 4th year honours thesis
Yvonne Ho's thesis is Study 2. Yvonne has completed her thesis and moved on from the project