General Information

RECYCLING TRENDS IN ONTARIO

Published by the Recycling Council of Ontario

 March 2000

Municipal Recycling Initiatives

In Ontario, access to multi-material recycling has increased considerably since the Blue Box program began in 1985. Ontario residents are now able to recycle anywhere between 6 and 20 recyclable materials depending on waste diversion programs employed in their municipality.

This increase can largely be attributed to the inception in March of 1994 of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment & Energy’s 3R Regulations that requires recycling and backyard composting programs for all municipalities with a population of 5,000 or more. The regulations also require community composting programs for all municipalities with populations greater than 50,000.¹

·      In 1987, less than 0.5 million households in Ontario had access to multi-material recycling. Today over 3.8 million households have access to Blue Box recycling and other waste diversion services in more than 500 municipalities. This accounts for 99% of Ontario households.²

·      In 1998, annual diversion rates showed that Ontario municipalities diverted 1.25 million tonnes of waste from landfill, totaling approximately 4 million tonnes of waste recycled by Ontario households since 1987.³

·      Over 1.1 million backyard composting units have been distributed in Ontario. In 1998, central composting sites diverted 290,000 tonnes of organic waste and backyard composting diverted 182,000 tonnes. Together, backyard and centralized composting had successfully diverted 58% more organic waste than in 1994.⁴

·        During the 1990’s, more and more municipalities have introduced household hazardous (HHW) collection program such as HHW collection days, collection depots, and HHW pick-up services like the “toxic taxi”. Ontario now has 58 HHW programs that serve approximately 9.9 million people, or 88% of Ontario’s population.⁵

Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Recycling Initiatives

·      In 1998 private companies diverted 800,000 metric tonnes of Industrial, Commercial, & Institutional (IC&I) waste.⁶

·      In the mid 1980’s, RCO recognized a handful of companies that had reduced their waste by 10%. In 1998, RCO recognized 26 Ontario businesses that had reduced their waste by more than 50%, six of which had reduced their waste by more than 95%.

·        The Canadian packaging industry met the National Packaging Protocol year-2000 target for 50% diversion of packaging materials from the waste stream (relative to 1988 levels) four years ahead of target. This was achieved in part by reducing thickness and weight of packaging, and by moving to more reusable transportation packaging (e.g., skids and pallets).

·        Through the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation's 'Charge Up to Recycle!' program, householders across Canada can now recycle their used Ni-Cad rechargeable batteries free of charge at more than 4,500 participating retail locations.⁷

Participating Retail Locations in Canada include:

·       Astral Photo Images

·       Battery Plus

·       Black’s Photography

·       Canadian Tire

·       Future Shop

·       Home Hardware

·       Makita Factory Service Centers

·       Authorized Motorola Dealers

·       Personal Edge/Centre du Rasoir

·       RadioShack

·       Zellers                                                    

(Source: Rechargeable Battery Corporation, www.rbrc.org/consumer/faq.html)

·        Twenty years ago, only one Canadian mill was able to recycle paper. Today, because of consumer demand, and a $1.5 billion investment by the paper industry, Canada has 62 recycling mills. In 1998, these Canadian mills recycled over 4.8 million tonnes of paper.⁸

WASTE DIVERSION UPDATES

Waste Diversion Organization: Future Sustainability of Ontario’s Waste Diversion Programs

In 1996, funding of municipal recycling efforts shifted from the joint effort of the Ministry of Environment and Energy and taxpayers, to the sole responsibility of the taxpayer.⁹ As a result, management of waste diversion efforts favoured strategic alliances with the private sector.

In response, the Waste Diversion Organization (WDO) was established on November 3, 1999 to enable government, municipalities, and industry to work together to help financially sustain Ontario’s municipal waste diversion programs.

At present, the current WDO members have financially committed to help fund municipal waste diversion programs for one year. Where the success of the WDO relies heavily on voluntary commitment, the current trend is to attract more private sector funding, in order to sustain Ontario’s existing waste diversion programs in the long term and to help expand and improve centralized composting, recycling in apartment buildings and education programs.

Ontario Will Not Reach It’s 50% Waste Reduction Goal in the Year 2000

Since 1987, Ontario’s waste diversion programs such as the Blue Box have successfully reduced waste by over 35%. Unfortunately however, with the present rates of waste reduction Ontario will not be able to reach it’s goal of 50% waste reduction in the year 2000. As a consequence, Ontario municipalities must find ways to alter existing programs to achieve diversion levels greater than the Ontario average of 35%.

Many municipalities in Ontario have adopted two and three-stream waste systems that provide a way to “integrate diversion and waste management to achieve greater fiscal efficiencies”.¹⁰

·        Two-stream waste systems  = waste system that separates organic waste from all other         waste

·        Three-stream waste systems = system that separates waste into recyclables, organics, and    garbage residue.

Examples:

The City of St. Thomas utilizing a three-stream waste system successfully diverted 65% of the city’s waste (St.Thomas uses the “historical” calculation method which compares the current rate of waste diversion against waste diversion in 1987, the benchmark).¹¹

The City of Guelph utilizing a two-stream waste system, called the Wet-Dry System, successfully diverted 56% of the city’s waste (71% wet and 48% dry).¹²

ISSUES

With such a rapidly evolving and expanding industry, the range of issues to be resolved is broad and complex. The following represents a brief overview of those currently considered critical: 

·      Ontario needs the roles and responsibilities of industries to change.  Industry is increasingly expected to contribute to solutions through stewardship initiatives.

·      Ontario needs procurement programs and market development initiatives.

·      Ontario needs to reconcile the contradiction between the trends towards global free trade versus bioregionalism.

·      Ontario needs a more informed, concerned and involved public to play a key role in the evolution of the 3Rs industry.

WHO NEEDS TO BE INVOLVED

Continued development of Ontario's 3Rs industry will involve a wide range of players including:

·      Individuals in the home and workplace in both their roles as consumers of goods and services and as generators of recoverable recyclables and compostables;

·      Public and private sector haulers and processors involved in managing waste, recyclables, and compostables

·      Regulators at the federal, provincial, regional and municipal levels of governments;

·      International trade regulators;

·      Industry associations in their role as negotiators of industry stewardship responsibilities;

·      Non-government organizations and associations which can act as catalysts, facilitators, watch dogs and advocacy groups; and

·      Organizations and associations of individuals (often called "consumers") that can also act as catalysts, facilitators, watchdogs and advocacy groups.

NOTES

¹ Environmental Protection Act: Ontario Regulation 101/94
²  3Rs Information Partnership. ^“Municipal 3Rs in Ontario: 1998 Fact Sheet”, October 1999. 
³  Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Resource Recycling. “State & Province: Recovery Increases in Ontario”, December 1999.   Vol.18(12):7
⁷ Rechargeable Battery Corporation. “FaQs”. Online. http://www.rbrc.org/comsumer/faq.html
⁸  Canadian Pulp and Paper Association 514-866-6621
⁹  Recycling Council of Canada. “Recycling Roles & Responsibilities Final Report”, April 1998.
¹⁰ Corporations Supporting Recycling. “The Evolution of Curbside Recycling: Useful  insights  can be drawn from 15 years of Ontario experience”, Feb/Mar. 1999.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² City of Guelph. “1998 Annual Report for Guelph’s Wet-Dry Recycling Centre”. Online.        http://www.guelph.on.ca  March 2000 (Guelph Wet-Dry Recycling 519-767-0598)

The Recycling Council of Ontario's e-mail address is: rco@rco.on.ca.