{"id":267984,"date":"2025-11-07T15:10:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T15:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/267984\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T15:10:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T15:10:23","slug":"can-new-recycling-rules-help-solve-ontarios-landfill-capacity-crisis-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/267984\/","title":{"rendered":"Can new recycling rules help solve Ontario\u2019s landfill capacity crisis? – Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

With landfill space expected to run out across Ontario within the next decade, policy makers want businesses to play a larger role in reducing waste.<\/p>\n

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The Ontario government is rolling out tougher regulations across the province in the new year \u201cto ensure producers \u2013 not taxpayers \u2013 cover the cost of managing the waste they create,\u201d according to an e-mail statement from Alexandru Cioban, press secretary for the minister of environment, conservation and parks.<\/p>\n

This regulatory framework is called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s meant to \u201cshift the financial and operational responsibility of recycling from municipalities to the organizations that produce packaging, paper and packaging\u2013like products,\u201d according to the Circular Materials website.<\/p>\n

Circular Materials is a national non-profit organization that \u201chelps producers meet their obligations\u201d under similar EPR programs in Alberta, British Columbia and New Brunswick.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOne of the biggest problems is that companies are making more and more packaging, more and more disposable stuff,\u201d said Emily Alfred with the Toronto Environmental Alliance. \u201cAnd we\u2019re the ones left to figure out what to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Some Ontario municipalities are already under EPR, but in January, all blue box programs in the province will be picked up by Circular Materials.<\/p>\n

However, multi-residential buildings that are managed by private waste management companies, rather than a municipality, won\u2019t become part of the EPR program until 2031.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a concern in places like Toronto, where apartments and condos only have a 27 per cent diversion rate, while single-family homes divert 61 per cent of waste from landfill.<\/p>\n

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However, with the start of EPR, the hope is this will mean less recyclable material in landfills.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time, the same list of recyclable materials will apply across the province,\u201d said Cioban.<\/p>\n

With that said, diversion rates have become an issue,\u00a0said Charlotte Ueta, the acting director of policy, planning and outreach for the City of Toronto\u2019s solid waste management services.<\/p>\n

Diversion is when waste is kept out of landfills through blue box or organic waste programs.<\/p>\n

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Toronto has been stuck at a diversion rate of around 50 per cent for the past decade.<\/p>\n

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The entire province only has a diversion rate of 24.2 per cent, according to the most recent statistics from Environment and Climate Change Canada in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of what we\u2019re consuming is actually not really compatible with today\u2019s recycling systems,\u201d said Calvin Lakhan, director of York University\u2019s Circular Innovation Hub.<\/p>\n

Lakhan warns recycling might not be the most sustainable solution to Ontario\u2019s waste management problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think EPR will ultimately lead to increased costs of consumer goods,\u201d said Lakhan. \u201cAnd it\u2019s unlikely that we\u2019re going to achieve any significant increases in diversion or recycling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Circular Materials CEO Allen Langdon said that prediction is \u201cnot valid,\u201d arguing that producers are investing in new recycling facilities to increase the amount of material that can be repurposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not judged on how much we collect, but actually how much gets sorted and how much actually gets recycled,\u201d said Langdon.<\/p>\n

Some environmentalists argue the plan needs tougher enforcement.<\/p>\n

For example, most financial penalties for producers missing diversion targets won\u2019t kick in until at least 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen really aggressive lobbying by those producers to water down the regulation,\u201d said Alfred.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With landfill space expected to run out across Ontario within the next decade, policy makers want businesses to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,714,66,123294],"class_list":{"0":"post-267984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-toronto-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}