Businesses and non-profit groups that don’t register with the City of Orillia will not have their curbside recyclables picked up after Jan. 1 under the new program.<\/p>\n
The city estimates there are about 400 businesses and non-profits in Orillia that need to register to continue having recyclables picked up in the new year.<\/p>\n
“We have 200 registered,” said Jill Fairchild, the city’s manager of waste management and environmental compliance.\u00a0“I think that’s a good amount of registrations so far. We expect that, in January, we will get an influx of registrations.”<\/p>\n
New provincial legislation is shifting recycling responsibility off\u00a0of municipal taxpayers and onto the shoulders of producers, businesses that create product packaging. The goal is to reduce excess and non-recyclable packaging. The legislation is expected to\u00a0save Orillia taxpayers $1.8 million<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n The province is using\u00a0Circular Materials, a non-profit company, to manage contractors for the pickup of standardized recyclables across Ontario.<\/p>\n However, the province has only included residential pickup in the new system. There is no curbside recycling pickup for industrial, commercial and institutional businesses including churches and non-profit organizations.<\/p>\n But, in October,\u00a0Orillia city council approved to cover the estimated $278,000 cost for the separate business collection service, a moved that went against the recommendation of staff.<\/p>\n “That’s great the city has done that. We will appreciate that drastically,” said\u00a0Rick Purcell, president of the Orillia’s Royal Canadian Legion Orillia Branch 34. “It would really impact us and cost us money … With our bingos, we have quite a lot of paper recycling once a week, and more with the Legion. If it was up to us to do our own recycling, it would complicate our lifestyle.”<\/p>\n Purcell said he was aware of the upcoming changes\u00a0but didn’t know the Legion had to register for the city program. It is now doing so.<\/p>\n Doug Cooper, chair of the Downtown Orillia Business Improvement Area,\u00a0wrote to council<\/a>\u00a0before the October decision, saying, “On behalf of the Downtown Orillia Business Improvement Area, representing approximately 200 small businesses and property owners, I am writing to express our deep concern regarding the City of Orillia’s potential decision to terminate all recycling pickup for all industrial, commercial and institutional properties.<\/p>\n “This decision would have profound financial, operational and environmental impacts on our downtown small businesses and properties. Due to the large number of businesses in such a small geographical area, some downtown businesses simply don’t have the space or the access to consider a private recycling option.”<\/p>\n