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Circular Materials collects materials, recycles them and then returns them to producers for use as recycled content in new products and packaging.\u00a0 (Kris Ketonen\/CBC)<\/p>\nThe City of Thunder Bay is taking steps to ensure a seamless transition as Ontario moves to a new provincial model for recycling depots, according to the city’s solid waste and recycling services manager.<\/p>\n
Jason Sherband said with mere weeks remaining before the city sees the number of recycling depots reduced from three to one, uncertainty remains about where that single depot will be located. But residents need not worry.<\/p>\n
Toronto-based Circular Materials, a non-profit, takes over recycling depot operations from the City of Thunder Bay on Jan. 1 as part of Ontario\u2019s new producer responsibility program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The program is part of a provincial regulation that is shifting responsibility for recycling from cities to producers of blue box materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big concern, that obviously we have as the city, is here we are closing in at the end of the year and we still don’t know from Circular Materials where their required depot will be come January 1st,\u201d\u00a0 Sherband told CBC Thunder Bay.<\/p>\n
The three existing depots are located at Walsh Street, Front Street and the city’s Solid Waste and Recycling Facility on Mapleward Road.<\/p>\n
Given the uncertainty around the depot operations, Sherband said \u201cwe\u2019re putting some measures in place to really maintain continuity of service here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said \u201cthat will give some time for Circular Materials to figure out what they’re doing here in the city in terms of are they going to operate the Walsh site, or are they going to select another site? Because as of right now we don’t have the answer to that and we are getting closer by the day here to January 1st.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
City to continue funding all 3 depots for now<\/p>\n
The City of Thunder Bay transitioned its residential blue box recycling program to full producer responsibility on July 1 last year, according to a city council report.<\/p>\n
According to the report, producers have been required to maintain depot collection services for blue box materials in the City of Thunder Bay during the province-wide transition period, which occurred between July 1, 2024, and Dec. 31, 2025.<\/p>\n
As of Dec. 31, 2025, the producers, represented by Circular Materials, are obligated to maintain one recycling depot in the community to service multi-residential residents only, the report states.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sherband said the City of Thunder Bay will continue funding all three depots at least through the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n
By then, the city will know where the Circular Materials-funded depot will be located, he said.<\/p>\n
A report to the city’s Quality of Life Standing Committee, which meets Tuesday, also recommends that the city fund the landfill recycling depot, and one other Thunder Bay depot, until the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
An update is also planned for city council in September, which would cover the future of recycling depot operations in 2027 and beyond.<\/p>\n
If the standing committee endorses the recommendations on Tuesday, they would then go to council for final approval as part of the 2026 budget process.<\/p>\n
More items added to recycling list<\/p>\n
Circular Materials CEO Allen Langdon said his company is \u201cin the midst of confirming\u201d where in Thunder Bay the single depot it will be funding will be located.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, whether they want to continue to operate all three depots is really [the city\u2019s] decision from a common collection system perspective,\u201d Langdon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to determine arrangements on the one that would be part of the overall common collection system in Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n
Circular Materials collects materials, recycles them and then returns them to producers for use as recycled content in new products and packaging.\u00a0 (Kris Ketonen\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Under the new system, Langdon said people will be able to include additional items for recycling.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarting January 1st, we’re going to move to a unified\u200b\u00a0material list, which means that the list of materials accepted for\u200b\u00a0collections are consistent and the same across Ontario,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIncluded in that will be new materials such as hot beverage cups such as coffee cups, deodorant and toothpaste tubes, ice cream tubs, black plastic containers, as well as frozen juice containers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n