The Ontario government is looking to move quickly on a new plan for blue box recycling in Ontario.
The blue box program in Ontario is one of four waste diversion programs currently operated jointly by municipalities and producers.
The others include hazardous waste, electronics and tire recycling. New waste management legislation, the Waste-Free Ontario Act (WFOA), came into force on Nov. 30, 2016.
On Sept. 28 solid waste services committee chair Don McKay provided Wellington County council an update on progress to implement the legislation.
“Things are moving along,” said McKay.
“It’s going to be left up to the municipalities how they’re going to handle that blue box collection.”
McKay said the ministry wants to move quickly on revamping the blue box system.
“They want to have an act in place before the next election,” he stated, noting the ministry is seeking to finalize municipal input on the topic by next February.
To that end, McKay said, “staff will be looking at service delivery so when various options come into place we can comment on that.”
McKay said the county, which currently contracts out blue box collection to Waste Management Canada, could end up continuing the status quo or switching to one of a number of potential systems.
An advisory from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario explained municipalities will have options to act as service providers to producers who are required to pay for programs like blue box, to work with private companies that may use municipal infrastructure, or to opt out from providing a service altogether.
“Residents are probably not going to see any difference, but it’s going to be a difference in each municipality,” McKay explained.
“We can do it and still contract it out, Service Ontario or the producers can take over the whole business of doing that; so we’re certainly going to be looking very closely at how we are going to do that.”
He added, “There’s going to be a number of options here, they’re going to be coming down the pipe fairly quickly and there’s going to have to be some decisions made fairly quickly.”
A report from county solid waste services manager Das Soligo notes municipalities have formed the Municipal Resource, Recovery and Research Collaborative (M3RC) to represent municipal interests with respect to the blue box transition to full extended producer responsibility.
Soligo’s report also points out that under the WFOA, a used tire program transition has begun with a plan to be submitted to the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change by Oct. 31.
Ontario Tire Stewardship will cease operations by Dec. 31, 2018, and a new program is to be in place by Jan. 1, 2019.
On organics diversion, Soligo reported an organics stakeholder working group has been established.
Food waste ban proposed
A policy statement is to be implemented in early 2018 to explore a proposed food waste disposal ban to be in place by 2022.
A ban could potentially require Ontarians to divert food waste from their garbage, possibly with programs like curb-side compost pick-up.
A ministry discussion paper on the proposal states 37 municipalities offered residential green bin programs – covering roughly 70 per cent of Ontario’s population in 2016.
The paper indicates the province could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a total of 2.2 mega tonnes by banning food waste from disposal in landfill.
