Some Orillia residents say they were caught off guard when new recycling carts arrived without any option for removing old blue boxes
Orillia resident Gayle Schofield said she was surprised and disappointed when Emterra workers dropped off the new large recycling carts, but wouldn’t take away the old ones.
“When the guys came and dropped off the bins, I said ‘Are you going to take the old ones?’ and they said ‘No. That’s your responsibility.”
“How do we dispose of them? How does any residence or apartment dispose of this? Did somebody not consider this? Somebody needs to make a decision here,” Schofield said.
As of July 2, Orillia is moving to the cart recycling system. Residents should have received their cart as they were distributed in the last two weeks. People who have not received cart can request on by email: .
Collection is moving to every second week, but pick up will continue on the same day. Recycles will be pick up on Week A or Week B as per the new recycling calendar from Circular Materials. Collection will become a single stream, meaning all recyclable go into the cart, rather than the current two-stream system where residents separated paper products from metals, plastic and glass.
Orillia residents can no longer use their old recycling bins to set out their recycling for collection, as the program transitions to recycling carts, said Jennifer Kerr, director of community and media relations Ontario, Circular Materials.
“We suggest that residents repurpose or donate their bin(s) from the previous program. Some residents find it helpful to use their bin to support the collection of recyclable materials in their home, and then place the materials loosely into their cart once full,” said Kerr.
Schofield contacted the city about it and they responded that there is no plan to pick up the old bins.
“Please be advised that the city will not be coming around to collect the old recycling boxes from properties. Instead, we highly encourage residents and building management to repurpose the old bins for personal or storage use around the property if possible,” read the email sent to Schofield.
“If you do not wish to keep them, they can be dropped off for disposal at the Waste Diversion Site (Hazardous Waste Depot) located at 100 Kitchener Street. Please note that because the city cannot provide curbside collection for these old bins, transporting them to the depot would need to be arranged by the building or residents.”
At her small apartment building, they don’t have room to store four large carts plus green bins and garbage bins and she can’t fit the old carts in her vehicle.
Schofield said the city, Emterra, which has the contract to pick up household recycling, or Circular Materials, which has been running the new producer responsibility model since January – should have communicated better with the public about the program.
“Things were not communicated well and it seems poorly thought out,” said Schofield.
There are approximately 20,000 old blue bins in circulation in the city, said Greg Preston, Orillia’s director of environmental services.
“No one is responsible for collecting recycling boxes as they are owned by the residents,” said Preston.
“The city will accept them for drop off and recycling free of charge at the waste diversion site for residents of Orillia.”
Blue, black and grey boxes are recyclable and can be made into new boxes, carts or other plastic products, he added.
Otherwise, people can repurpose them for other uses such as for storage, he added.
Since January 1, household recyclable materials became consistent across Ontario under the new extended producer responsibility model. It is overseen by Circular Materials, a non-profit company set up by the government, and the Emterra is the contractor doing the pick up.
The provincial program, under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, transfers cost and responsibility for the blue box program to producers of the products themselves, rather than on municipalities.
“Extended producer responsibility is something that municipalities have been calling for for many years,” said Preston in an earlier interview with OrilliaMatters.
“When you put the cost on the producers that generate that packaging, they tend to make better decisions about what packaging they put out there. They will tend to use packaging that is more easily recyclable and less expensive to recycle.
“It benefits the circular economy. Under the old system, there was no incentive for product producers to make decisions that had recycling of that product in mind.”
The list of materials accepted for recycling has also expanded to include items such as hot and cold beverage cups, black plastic containers, frozen juice containers, ice cream tubs, deodorant and toothpaste tubes. For a full list of recyclable materials visit: circularmaterials.ca/Orillia.
However, under the new model, business recycling was dropped leaving each municipality to either take on the cost or leave it up to businesses. The City of Orillia, through a council decision, decided to pick up the tab for business and institution collection.
Orillia’s Waste Diversion site is open Tuesday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays between 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Anyone with questions related to recycling bin inquiries, missed collections or what materials you can recycle should contact Emterra by email: [email protected] or phone: 1-888-597-1541. For other questions contact Circular Materials.