Businesses and non profits hit hard by new provincial recycling rules

Changes to Ontario’s blue box program have taken effect this year, with new recycling rules being implemented in Kawartha Lakes. Online message boards suggest the changes are not welcome.

For residents this means that there are now two trucks coming by on their designated collection day. Miller Waste will continue to pick up garbage, and Emterra Environmental is now in charge of recycling.

“This is a significant shift happening across Ontario,” said Heather Dzurko, manager of waste management for the city, in a press release. “We’re committed to ensuring that residents and businesses in Kawartha Lakes have the information and support they need as recycling services transition to Circular Materials Ontario.”

These changes also include items that were previously placed with regular waste being moved to recycling. For a full list residents are asked to refer to the “what goes where” inset in the municipal calendar or download the Recycle Coach app.

A big change is that recycling collection will no longer be provided to private-sector businesses, places of worship, commercial farms, municipal buildings, non-profits, daycares, or post-secondary institutions.

Cory Reeds, owner of Galaxy Framing in Lindsay, uses a lot of cardboard due to the materials she works with. Typically, she’ll put out five or six recycling bins full of cardboard on collection day. Now she’s having to pay out of pocket to get it collected privately.

“When you think about having to raise your prices because you have an additional $200 or $300 a month in cost for removing your recycling, it’s frustrating,” Reeds said.

Her other option would be taking the materials to the landfill herself, however that would still cost her and as a small business owner with only a few staff, it’s not always possible to be able to leave to make a dump run. “(Recycling collection is) something that we’ve had for so long. I wonder what the reason is that it’s got taken away from us.”

Sharon Benoit, property and facilities manager of Women’s Resources, said this change is going to have a big impact on the organization, and its budget. “Everything is a complete mess right now, as some of our locations need to contract privately due to the manner in which our buildings are zoned, and one location is supposed to be still eligible being multi-residential.”

Despite their Logie Street location still being eligible for collection, on the first Friday of the changes, the recycling stayed on the curb, forcing Women’s Resources to have to investigate why it was never picked up. At the time of press, Benoit has received no response.

She said she’s reached out to both MPP Laurie Scott’s office and the city and hasn’t received any clarity on the situation. “(The city’s) advice was to partner with other organizations to have the recycling picked up, or to get it contracted privately. They even suggested transporting it all to the other location that is zoned multi-residential, which is ridiculous.”

With their only option being to take their recycling to the landfill, for a fee, Women’s Resources instead choose to make a private contract with Miller Waste. This contract will see Miller Waste picking up six bins of both plastic and paper recycling bi-weekly at Women’s Resources emergency shelter.

“This is only half of what we normally produce, but we cannot afford to pay more than the $250 monthly fee…being non-profit, every dollar needs to be accounted for so this could mean that we have to cut this amount from direct services for the women in our programs,” Benoit said.

Similarly, BGC Kawarthas has found itself needing to be prepared to pay a little more for the much-needed service. “The primary impact will be the added costs applied to our locations in Lindsay and Fenelon Falls,” said Amy Terrill, executive director.

“At just over $100 a month for each location, it’s not a large cost, but of course costs add up when you are operating a non-profit,” she said.

Residents are asked to place their recycling at the curb by 7 a.m. and to wait until 7 p.m. to report a missed pickup. Those with recycling questions who have had missed pickups are asked to contact Emterra directly at 1-888-597-1541 or .