Ontario to Revamp Organic Waste Collection and Recycling Practices

An announcement is expected in the next few months with regards to revamping Ontario recycling and organic waste collection.

 Though the details are not yet clear, a disposal ban on food waste is among the initiatives expected to be mentioned. Should a disposal ban on food waste become reality, this could mean mandatory green boxes across the province.

 This upcoming announcement should tie up questions surrounding the Waste-Free Ontario Act which was passed in 2016. This legislation transferred responsibility for recycling collection and the expense of this to waste producers, which was passed as a means of reducing Ontario’s financial burden. Meanwhile, municipalities are expected to have the option of how much responsibility they want to take on their own recycling practices.

 With regards to the City of Sarnia, currently the city funds up to 50 percent of the area’s recycling program. The City has the option to transfer the program’s responsibility to Stewardship Ontario, a not-for-profit organization representing producers of recycled packaging material.

 In 2016, Sarnia’s landfill diversion rate was approximately 40 percent. This upcoming announcement comes at an interesting time for the City as Sarnia is required to tender a new set of contracts for recycling and garbage collection. The City’s current deals with Marcotte Disposal and Emterra Environmental expire in June 2019.

 At the upcoming October 23 council meeting, some details are expected to be provided on how the City wishes to move forward. Much like Sarnia, the City of London is in a near-identical situation as its contracts expire in October 2019.

 The pending details of the Waste-Free Ontario Act largely has these regions at a standstill. These municipalities anxiously await more information and in the meantime, are gathering more information on how to possibly move forward.

 Currently Sarnia’s landfill diversion rate is at approximately 40 percent and London is hoping to reach 50 percent waste diversion by 2022.

 The time is now to do something about organic waste collection in areas where there is no large-scale program already in place. Sarnia and London both, alongside many other municipalities in southern Ontario, do not have a green box program. The hope is that by enacting a program such as this, savings in recycling could be diverted towards organics.

 As Ontario’s cities await details of what the province plans to do, it will be very interesting to see how organic waste collection and recycling culture develops in these regions throughout the decade to come. Even as responsibility may be diverted to waste producers, education and enforcement are still going to fall under City priority. Details are scarce but things are about to change for the better across many of these municipalities. An announcement is expected anytime, with the City of Sarnia expected to follow-up with their own plan sometime in early 2018.