We're Talking About Waste Management
And that affects the whole damn planet
Given that Earth Day just passed, I thought it would be a good time to dig into some of the Region’s plans for waste management.
Many of us are aware that the well-known Blue Box program got its start right here in Kitchener by Nyle Ludolph, 40 years ago. Currently, the region is preparing for some significant changes to the recycling program due to recent provincial requirements that seek to standardize the process, making producers responsible for recycling. The staff report states, “This new approach to waste management makes producers (companies that make and import packaging/products) fully responsible for the waste generated from their products and packaging.”
“An industry-led non-profit group called the Circular Materials Organization will pay for and operate the blue box collection program in all Ontario municipalities.” Circular Materials Organization represents some of the biggest producers of packaging in the recycling industry including Costco, Coca-Cola, Loblaws, and McDonald’s.
Some municipalities (London, Ottawa, Toronto) begin this transition in 2023. Waterloo Region’s transition starts March 2nd, 2024. The staff report says that, “Transitioning all of Ontario’s existing municipally operated blue box programs to full producer responsibility will occur over a three-year period between July 2023 and December 2025. This includes curbside collection, material sorting and processing of blue box material, in addition to resident education and promotion.”
The Province mandated the switch to a private system to allow for the efficient expansion and standardization of the blue box program across Ontario. However, many environmental groups, including Environmental Defence and the Recycling Council of Ontario, have expressed concerns about this new program. Ashley Wallis, the plastics program manager at Environmental Defence, worries that, "The thinking at this point is really focusing exclusively on residential waste — it's potentially going to see some Ontarians not receiving recycling service, and we have some concerns about the way the recycling targets have been established.”
Most of us know that it can be confusing to understand what can be recycled and what can’t. Just because an item says it is recyclable, doesn’t mean that our municipality has the facilities to do so. For example, The Region of Waterloo, “allows coffee cups from Tim Hortons and Starbucks into its blue boxes, but other cities don’t. This region does not allow polystyrene coffee cups into blue boxes, but some others do.”
While these new standards mean a lot of changes behind the scenes, staff expect that residents will notice very little difference as the Region makes this transition. However, many non-residential locations that currently have blue box pickup, like churches, mosques, temples, and daycare centres, may not be included when the program goes private (these are considered ‘ineligible sites’). There will be some service expansions though, including all public and private schools, long-term care homes, transit stops, and municipal parks. Also, it is expected that under the new program, more materials will be eligible for recycling, and those acceptable materials will be consistent throughout the province.
It is estimated that the Region will save approximately $3.5 million dollars per year once the transition is completed in 2025. Producers will cover costs associated with collection, promotion and education for the new program. The Region will still be responsible for any collection costs associated with ‘ineligible sites’. The staff report also notes that, “Curbside collection of garbage, organics, bulky and large metal items, yard waste and Christmas trees would continue as part of the Region’s existing curbside collection contract.”
Those aren’t the only anticipated changes to the Region’s waste management plan - they are also considering a shift to automated carts for collection and a 4-day collection schedule.
While most waste collection happens manually, “challenges around staffing recruitment and retention are making it difficult for municipalities to stick to manual waste collection.” Additional benefits of carts, according to the staff report, include: a reduction in fly-away litter on windy days and less impacts from rodents.
“Residents will roll out garbage and organic carts to the curb where they set their waste now and then instead of a staff member manually by hand, lifting the materials and putting it in the truck, a robotic or mechanical arm will lift and empty the cart contents into the truck,” said Olivia Kwok (waste management supervisor at the Region of Waterloo). Several other municipalities already use automated carts, including Guelph, Peel Region, and Toronto.
A proposed shorter collection week, from Tuesday-Friday “would reduce collection on statutory holidays, which are typically Mondays, add an extra day for back up collections necessary for weather disruptions, allow for better planned routes and improve staff recruitment and retention.”
The good news in all of this is that Waterloo Region’s only remaining landfill is expected to last another 25-30 years, five or 10 years longer than previously anticipated. And that’s a very good thing because, “A 2016 study estimated that building an energy-from-waste incinerator would cost anywhere from $300 million to $600 million, depending on the size of the facility and the type of technology used.”
Waste diversion programs such as our blue boxes and green bins have played a large part in adding years to our landfill plan. “In 2017, the region began picking up garbage only every other week, while still collecting recyclables and organics in the green bins every week. That got a lot more people recycling and using the green bin, and caused a major drop in the amount of garbage going to the landfill.” In fact, as of 2021, 44% of residential waste collected curbside was garbage and bulky items, 24% from the blue box, 18% green bin, and 14% yard waste.
I’ll leave the last word to Blue Box founder, Nyle Ludolph, who wasn’t just passionate about recycling, but about waste reduction as a whole, "You're not a hero if you fill your blue box, you're a hero if you have nothing to put in it."
Here’s hoping at least a few of you understood today’s post title as a reference to one of my favourite Simpsons’ episodes, Trash of the Titans.
I'm not sure I'm fully on board with the idea of producers also being responsible for promotion -- could set up a counterproductive incentive structure where they "don't work to hard" to promote it, and then have less recycling to collect.
Switching to a single provider for all of Ontario is bad because it makes it really hard for the province to switch providers if the provider underperforms. A single provider provides minimal efficiencies of scale. What would the province do if the recycling provider decided that they no longer accept plastic for recycling unless the province ponies up? Another concern is the recycling costs of large retailers (ex Walmart, Starbucks) being subsidized by fees paid by smaller retailers.