Blue Box Program changes in North Frontenac may take hold elsewhere

Jeff Green | Aug 16, 2023

At their meeting later this week, North Frontenac Council will consider a proposal by Public Works Manager Darwyn Sproule to begin sending recycled materials to a Napanee based Material Recovery Facility instead of one in Belleville which they have used for a number of years. In addition to cost savings because the Napanee facility is 22 kilometres closer than the one in Belleville, the township will also benefit from some of changes that have been put in place already, including using larger recycling bins and a single truck for transporting the material.

One of the key benefits that the new company, Environmental 360 Solutions (E360S), offers is a change from the current four material stream system to a simpler, two material stream system.

“The second advantage for E360S is the reduction from four recycling streams to two. Glass can be placed with cans and plastic containers, and paper can be placed with corrugated cardboard. This reduces the number of bins required, and the sorting effort required by residents. Two streams is also consistent with the operation preferred by the Producer Responsible Organization (PRO) after the BB program transitions in 2025.”

The Producer Responsible Organization (PRO) will be the largest change in how materials are recycled in Ontario since the Blue Box Program was introduced. They new system, which has taken over a decade to develop, is poised to shift both the cost and management of manufactured materials requiring recycling to the manufacturers. Currently is a a municipal responsibility. The new system should result in municipal savings, but could have an inflationary impact on pricing.

As Darwyn Sproule indicated in his report, if the PRO proceeds as expected, a two stream system will take hold throughout the province.

The transition will be an easy one for consumers, as it requires less sorting.