Waterloo Residents will Save Money with Improved Waste Collection and Recycling Program
If Waterloo Region production plants are forced to cover all costs associated with the production of recyclable materials, citizens will continue to go about their regular recycling routine. There will be no noticeable changes in the beginning, and any changes that do occur in the future will likely be for the better.
With this shift in cost liability, taxpayers will have the added benefit of saving money. Right now, the city pays up to $4 million every year to gather and process recyclable materials. The money produced by the process doesn’t make up for the money spent on it.
The biggest difference between the new setup and the old one is that currently, the region as a whole takes care of half of the costs, while producers are given the other half to deal with. In line with the rules of the Waste-Free Ontario Act, waste producers must pay for and complete full production of the packaging process. This closely mirrors the waste removal and reduction infrastructure of both British Columbia and the majority of Europe.
While the Waste-Free Ontario Act is written up and ready for use, the provincial government hasn’t yet outlined a set of rules to make sure this Act is followed. It shouldn’t be long before this happens, however, as the city already has enough on its plate in terms of costs and requires a quick shift in cost coverage. The change should be implemented before next year’s June provincial election. Delays could rack up an annual $130 million for cities across Ontario.
To prevent costly delays from happening, many organizations across the province have teamed up with the representatives of the production plants to build an all-encompassing, government-approved plan that will be put into action as soon as possible. Factoring into this new set of guidelines is the need to keep the recycling services of the province on par with what they currently are. This is a likely outcome of giving all associated costs to producers, as it will encourage them to be conscious of what they create and distribute, pushing for innovation to keep waste levels low.
The organizations working on the regulations hope that less materials will end up in blue waste collection bins across the province as a result of changes in production. Unfortunately, the proposal will not be finished until February 2018, and the earliest it will be put into place is June 2019. The good news is, blue bin recycling will be introduced to areas that have yet to use it, creating more cohesiveness across the province. Operational responsibility and money are both factors in the new system’s implementation,
Each region will be able to transfer costs to service providers, give separate entities control of the program, or do a bit of both while the province adjusts to the production payment plan. Whatever they choose, Waterloo as a city is ready to switch to a more sustainable system, and city officials are looking forward to the seeing the results of the transition once it’s complete.
