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"Toronto uses landfill for disposing of about three-quaters of its waste"

Do we need to use the first "of" that is bold in this sentence. In other words, if I take out "of", will the sentence still be correct?

please help me to sort it out. Thanks so much!

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  • The clumsiness (of both concept and syntax) in my own view is due to the 'for disposing of' phrase, not the use of two 'of's. I would prefer to use the full infinitive, myself. Toronto uses landfill to dispose of about three quarters of its waste sounds fine to me.
    – Nigel J
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 0:23

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By dropping the "of" the reading of that sentence changes the verb "dispose" from intransitive to transitive, which gives it a different denotative meaning. The transitive form of "dispose" means "to organize" or "to give an inclination toward something". So the sentence would read "Toronto uses landfill for organizing about three-quaters of its waste", following standard grammar rules.

However, I think the context around the verb does a lot of the heavy lifting for supplying meaning. When talking about landfill and waste, the "get rid of" meaning of "dispose" seems intuitive, even if the grammar does not support that meaning according to accepted definitions of the word.

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  • thanks so much for the thorough answer, It's been a great help.
    – Tinh Le
    Commented Oct 4, 2018 at 17:00

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