Region to save up to $6M on recycling costs

Producers to take on full cost of program starting in March 2024, according to provincial schedule

WATERLOO REGION — The cost of recycling in Ontario will be entirely covered by producers, according to an announcement from the province.

The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks announced last week that producers of products will begin paying for all the recycling programs in the province, with a staggered rollout beginning in 2023.

Waterloo Region’s transition to fully producer-funded will happen in March 2024, according to the province’s released schedule.

For Waterloo Region, this will mean a savings of $2 million to $6 million per year, according to Jon Arsenault, the director of waste management services at the Region of Waterloo.

“This is great news,” said Karen Redman, regional chair. “This is something we’ve been advocating for, for a number of years.”

Where these extra funds will go is not yet decided, says Redman.

“Well, we haven’t started exploring (ideas) yet, we aren’t phased in until 2024, but that will be the decision of council. I imagine that staff will come forward with some recommendations,” said Redman.

Currently, municipalities pay for about half of the cost of recycling in the province.

Across Ontario, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks estimates $156 million will be saved by municipalities annually.

The ministry also announced all recycling programs across the province will be standardized, so every municipality’s recycling program will be the same.

Arsenault and Redman both say they don’t expect recycling service to be disrupted or anticipate major changes for residents.

“It’s nice to finally get this off the table, it’s just now we have a lot of work to do figure out the details behind it and how it goes forward,” said Arsenault.

Arsenault said the region will now have to begin conversations about the role it will play in recycling going forward with Stewardship Ontario, the organization representing producers.

Currently the region covers the full cost of recycling and then receives about half back from the producers. This comes from fees collected from producers by Stewardship Ontario.

The province updated its blue-box regulations under the 2016 Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act to better connect all products eligible to be recycled with producers and ensure responsibility, said Arsenault. The region’s phase-in date for the producer takeover is aligned with the end of the region’s processing and collection contracts, he said.

Options of the region’s involvement going forward could range from the status quo where the region handles the recycling but compensated fully, to not being involved at all, or something in-between.

Arsenault said the region’s recycling facility may one day end up as a stranded asset, depending on what is negotiated with producers. However, “We also are in a position now where it’s getting close to end of life, to be honest, so we’re not putting capital infrastructure into it per se or looking to expand until we know what role we’ll play in the future.”

“So we’re actually in a pretty good position in the sense of a handoff.”

The point of the regulation, said Arsenault, is to encourage innovation in the industry

“This isn’t just about removing tax burden or, you know, costs to the taxpayer.

“Ultimately the outcome of this program should be to incentivizing new types of packaging, different types of packaging, less packaging that can help with that circular economy concept.”