Norfolk County is reminding non-eligible property owners that curbside recycling collection officially ended on January 1st, in alignment with Ontario’s producer-led Blue Box program.
The change affects properties including Business Improvement Areas (BIAs), campgrounds or trailer parks without permanent residents, churches, daycares, small businesses, commercial farms without residences, and other institutional or industrial properties.
Merissa Bokla, Supervisor of Waste Management, explained that this shift has been in the works for several years.
Things began to shift in 2021, when the provincial government changed the blue box regulation to being a producer-led initiative, where the producers then were paying 100% of the program fees for the collection and the processing of recycling.
In that legislation, it stated that they only had to collect from residential sources.
Bokla said the county considered continuing IC&I (industrial, commercial, and institutional) collections, but hit a roadblock when they confirmed they could not pick up from businesses on a regular route as they could not mix residential and IC&I collections in one truck.
Staff estimated that it would cost around $400,000 to $450,000 per year to collect and process recycling from these non-eligible properties.
Council ultimately voted not to continue with IC&I collections because of this.
For those affected, there are alternative options.
When the changes were first announced, there were comments online expressing concern about costs and the environmental impact.
Many felt that those affected would ultimately just begin throwing their recycling into the trash, something the county keeping an eye on.
For more information, non-eligible properties can contact the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA) at 1-833-600-0530 or visit rpra.ca.
Residents and businesses can also subscribe for Norfolk County updates at norfolkcounty.ca/mynews.