One Team, One Solution: Tomlinson Wins W2RO Industry Innovation Award
When people think about innovation, they often think exclusively about technology. At Tomlinson, innovation comes from combining the expertise of our people with the right tools and technologies.
That’s why being named the recipient of the Waste to Resource Ontario (W2RO) Industry Innovation Award is about much more than a new process or piece of equipment. It is a recognition of what can happen when teams across our organization work together toward a common goal.
The story begins with our drivers, who collect construction and demolition materials from projects across our region and bring them to the Tomlinson Waste Recovery Centre. There, our sorting process and team recover valuable resources that might otherwise end up in landfill, including wood waste that becomes the starting point for something remarkable. That recovered wood is fed into the Ladybug, Harvest Green’s biomass pyrolysis system, where it is converted into a renewable gas used to fuel asphalt production. Our materials team then uses that renewable energy to produce asphalt, and our infrastructure crews place it on roads and projects throughout the communities we serve. In other words, material that arrives as waste leaves our operation as part of the infrastructure people rely on every day.
The Waste-to-Asphalt Project is a practical example of a circular economy in action, where one operation’s waste becomes another operation’s input. Since opening in 2015, the Tomlinson Waste Recovery Centre has diverted more than 180,000 tonnes of material from landfill, including approximately 110,000 tonnes of wood waste that helped make this project possible. By replacing natural gas with renewable gas produced from recovered wood waste, Tomlinson achieved a 47.3% reduction in cradle-to-gate greenhouse gas emissions associated with asphalt production, while also helping reduce reliance on fossil fuels, conserve landfill space and prevent methane emissions. The project also marked a Canadian first: in September 2025, Tomlinson successfully produced and placed Canada’s first asphalt made using pyrolysis gas generated from recovered construction and demolition wood waste.
While we’re proud of this recognition, we’re even more proud of what it represents: the power of collaboration, innovation and sustainability. This award belongs to the drivers, sorters, operators, materials teams and infrastructure crews whose work demonstrates what’s possible when one team comes together to solve a challenge in a new way.