Thousands of tons of recyclables could end up in landfills next year if municipalities opt out of running expensive collection services for businesses and institutions not covered by the Ontario legislation that privatized residential recycling.
The provincial legislation made companies that produce or use Blue Box material fully responsible for the cost and collection of the residential recycling program, a cost that used to be shared with municipalities.
But the plan omitted what are referred to as “noneligible” properties, including all private sector businesses, restaurants, places of worship, daycares, campgrounds, municipal buildings such as libraries and arenas, as well as non-profits such as shelters and food banks.
Many municipalities are now deciding whether to continue a separate collection service, which many cities offered and paid separately for when they shared the cost of the Blue Box program.
As of now, there is no provincial requirement to do so.
Jim Bradley, the regional chair of Niagara, said it would be too expensive for the region to continue separate collection limited to institutions and businesses after Jan. 1, when the last group of municipalities will have transitioned to the new privatized residential model.
The Niagara Region estimates that servicing the area’s 4,375 noneligible properties would cost around $3.5 million a year, according to a staff report — about $2 million more than current costs because new contracts would have to be negotiated with waste management companies Miller and GFL.
The staff report says Circular Materials, a ‘producer responsibility organization’ (PRO) founded to manage recycling for big-name brands and the overall administer of Ontario’s privatized residential program, “will not co-collect this material alongside residential recycling.” Circular is one of four PROs operating in the province.
A decision by Niagara council won’t be made until the fall.
“Our concern would be that if we did not assume that cost and assume that collection, that a lot of it would go into the landfill and put additional pressure on the landfill,” said Bradley. “That’s the dilemma.”
The Ontario government has asked for public input on a proposal to amend the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act of 2016, which privatized residential recycling. The proposal would allow municipalities to negotiate, and potentially contract out the work, to the organizations now running the Blue Box program.
The PROs have been providing small business collection, at a municipalities cost, since the province began transitioning in 2023 to the new privatized model, but “have decided to end small business collection once the blue box system has fully transitioned in 2026,” according to the proposed amendments.
But whether contracting out work to PROs will be cheaper remains to be seen.
Circular Materials CEO Allan Langdon said that using the same trucks to pick up residential and commercial recycling, referred to as commingling, presents “multiple challenges.”
In an email, Langdon said that producers are responsible for reporting on the quantity of residential blue box material that is collected and processed, and commingling “results in inaccurate reporting under the Blue Box regulation.”
As well, significant resources are needed to separate the material, said Langdon.
With the Jan. 1 deadline fast approaching, the province has directed PROs to start negotiations with municipalities and small industrial, commercial, and institutional organizations to provide recycling services in advance of the government’s proposed amendments.
“The Minister’s expectation is that the plan should be in place as soon as possible to ensure there is no disruption in service for these locations upon full implementation in 2026,” according to a letter sent from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks to the City of Ottawa last month.
“The intent is that PROs and municipalities are able to discuss arrangements before legislative amendments are finalized so that local communities and businesses have more certainty as soon as possible,” wrote Robyn Kurtes, an assistant deputy minister in the environmental policy division in the ministry.
Langdon said discussions on the program are ongoing. Circular Materials, as administrator, is working with other PROs and engaging local communities for feedback on program design, according to Langdon.
The City of Ottawa is waiting for those discussions to begin, and in an email said it will delay making a decision until this fall on whether to maintain the service.
“Discussions on the implementation details have not begun,” said Andrea Gay Farley, program manager of waste collections, programs and customer service for the City of Ottawa. “We are monitoring the situation closely and will provide more information when it’s available.”
Cities such as Brantford, which had decided to stop collection, are also now waiting to hear from PROs on plans for small industrial, commercial and institutional collection.
“It is possible that the cost to collect noneligible locations may be reduced which could change Council’s decision on providing this service to noneligible locations,” according to a staff report that went to a Brantford committee on Aug. 5.
Niagara Regional chair Bradley says “it’s a very difficult decision at this time” to think about adding more money to the tax bill.
“Budgets are so tight and the demands for services and the costs to municipalities are so great,” said Bradley. “And our tax bills have been coming in higher than we would like.
“Right now … probably council would be leaning toward not providing that service,” said Bradley. “But there hasn’t been a final decision made yet because certainly those entities that now receive service will continue to ask either the province or the municipality to provide that service free of cost.”
The provincial government is also proposing to scrap a planned expansion of the privatized Blue Box program to multi-residential buildings, schools, and specified long-term care homes and retirement homes because the PROs claim it will be too expensive.
