How Canada’s Northwest Territories show where There’s a Will, There’s a Way when it Comes to Recycling
We don’t usually associate high efficiency recycling with Canada’s north. That’s not to say they do a bad job at recycling but rather, a lot of the challenges we like to discuss are relevant to larger cities such as Toronto.
Despite this, something really interesting has happened in the Northwest Territories that we want to highlight. The region implemented a massive recycling program targeting waste across NWT, resulting in saving more than 325 million containers from ending up in landfills, since 2005. Spearheaded by Environment and Natural Resources deputy minister Joe Dragon, this is a huge accomplishment for a region of Canada we don’t often see in the news for such things.
It’s work like this that inspire us here in Toronto that maybe there’s more we all could be doing to increase landfill diversion. Toronto already has some excellent recycling programs in place however even so, there are issues that result in less materials being recycled than what is possible. The Northwest Territories case study shows such a program works on a large-scale and also, it demonstrates that the recycling can happen here at home. Unlike other northern regions in Canada, NWT’s recycling program used infrastructure in North America to recycle its containers rather than relying in foreign facilities overseas – something which is very common in these areas.
Toronto has done a good job at building facilities here in the city to handle its recycling needs. Even so, our waste still is oftentimes sent to facilities outside the GTA for processing and waste management. For all the positives waste management is responsible for, what the Northwest Territories have done is successfully minimize their environmental footprint while also building facilities, bringing jobs, and generating economic activity in its own home region. Also, NWT has launched a single-use retail bag program, which has kept more than 50 million bags from Canadian landfills since 2011.
Perhaps Toronto can learn a thing or two from how the Northwest Territories have been able to generate these numbers. NWT uses a Calgary-based plastics facility to handle all its plastic materials, breaking the material down and repurposing it into a wide array of different products. Non-reusable glass is sent from NWT to an Airdrie-based facility, which turns them into fibreglass. Aluminum in the Northwest Territories is transported to an American facility. The relationships NWT has built for itself across North America shows the potential regions like the GTA can have in maximizing its recycling operations. If an area as vast in size and as minimal in population as the Northwest Territories can do it, there’s no saying what is possible for other regions across Canada.
Toronto boasts some impressive recycling numbers but it’s still at risk of falling behind regions who are minimizing cross-contamination and who are arguably doing a better job at educating its population on its recycling program. Nevertheless, we salute the Northwest Territories for the great job they’ve done at improving recycling rates and increasing waste diversion to its best level yet.
For more information on waste management and recycling in Toronto, we would love to help. Core Mini Bins has helped hundreds of residential and commercial businesses across Toronto maximize their waste management efforts. Speak with one of our representatives to put your waste management responsibilities in the hands of a company you can trust.
