“We can’t just be shipping our recycling to other countries,” she says. recycling facility. In 2016, around half of all plastic waste intended for recycling was traded internationally, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Science Advances. Shifting more of the onus to large companies would help fund the overhaul he says is needed to improve recycling rates. 333 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1G9 © 2002-2020 Rogers Media. For two consecutive winters now, Gerry Moore and his staff at Island Waste Management Corp. (IWMC) on Prince Edward Island have resorted to burning plastic bags. A labourer loads plastic bottles ready to be recycled in Beijing. Ever since Canada’s first curbside program launched in Kitchener, Ont., in 1981, spreading the new gospel of recycling hinged in large measure on making the process convenient. B.C. And revenues generated by selling recyclables last year were half what the city had been expecting. In 2018, China prohibited the import of 24 categories of recyclable materials, including eight types of plastic. But neither the United States nor Japan have signed on, and many of the strategy’s targets – including a goal to recycle and reuse at least 55 per cent of plastic packaging by 2030, and 100 per cent of all plastics by 2040 – are voluntary. EFS and other companies are urging Ontario and other jurisdictions to adopt a standard by which plastic bags would contain 15-per-cent recycled content by 2020. City officials encourage people to report any illegal dumping, which can be done by calling (416) 392-0843. And its paper and cardboard have found a home in other markets. Recyclables are now prohibited from both residential and business garbage. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. Blue-box sins are frequent, and often glaring. An error has occurred while trying to update your details. It’s time for a Clean Break! Non-subscribers can read and sort comments but will not be able to engage with them in any way. “It was a charade.”. Environmental organization says one million recyclable bottles, cans ‘go missing’ daily in B.C. Even plastics recyclers are grappling with the trade-offs inherent in modern packaging. {* createAccountButton *}, You may have created a profile with another, For all that’s known about the value and importance of preserving every ounce of our precious resources, many still don’t take the time to put the proper waste in the proper place, and that’s why. Consider those multilayer stand-up pouches used to package an array of goods, from croutons to baby food. Much also depends on a municipality’s size and whether it sorts and markets its own rubbish, or pays a private company to do so. In other words, no chip bags, multilayer pouches or candy wrappers. That means: Comments that violate our community guidelines will be removed. “We had no other option,” he says. Mr. Moore, IWMC’s chief executive, says the cost of collecting recyclables has jumped by 40 per cent in the last year because the province’s contractor is having a harder time finding a home for some of the material. That has driven up costs, as processors try to reduce the offending items, although dollar figures are difficult to pin down; recycling in Canada is highly fragmented, and plagued by spotty data. Still, Ms. McKenna called China’s crackdown a wake-up call that points to a need for better waste-management systems. You have activated your account, please feel free to browse our exclusive contests, videos and content. {* backButton *} “But right now,” she says, “there’s no large-scale, industrial way of recycling them.”, Plastics in products staying in Canada, per end-use market (2016), MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: DELOITTE. © Copyright 2020 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved. Desperation had set in. It’s long been a difficult material to offload. Wrong! Canada V8W 1R7. Ontario Environment Minister Rod Phillips says the province is now looking at “how, not if” to implement a full EPR program, meaning companies would pay full freight. HOW THIS IS HANDLED: Though two years ago this might have been fine, food waste is now a major problem and can contaminate otherwise perfectly good recyclables. Dell will instead remit the fees directly to EPRA QC. In March, India, another large market, signalled that it would tighten plastic scrap imports. And so, over time, more stuff got the green light to go into the same blue bin, yielding a jumble of waste called “single-stream.” Participation rates soared. A three-hour tour through the city Wednesday turned up lots of disappointing dumping, including some illegal unloading comprised of 100 per cent recyclable material. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. “If we look up and down these streets there’s actually recycling being collected today.”. Guided by its Board, the CRD works collaboratively to build a vibrant, livable and sustainable region. HOW THIS IS HANDLED: Though (non-black) plastic lids and paper sleeves are recyclable, the waxy paper cups themselves are not. The past year, she notes, has been "very challenging in the sense that we’re on our own.”. Although a small Canadian recycling sector emerged, exports to China surged, from Canada and elsewhere. Both the costs and the number of restrictions related to recycling have risen sharply since last year. Advocates say measures such as that could help support Canada’s small plastics-recycling sector, which operates in the shadow of a much larger petrochemical industry. In 2016, 3.3 million tonnes of plastics were discarded in Canada, 29,000 tonnes went to unmanaged dumps or were leaked, 2.8 million tonnes of the discarded plastics went to landfills, That is roughly 24 times the weight of the CN Tower, One bin represents about 32,500 tonnes of discarded plastics, MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: DELOITTE, CNTOWER.CA. Now, the company that sorts the city’s recyclables wants only those plastics that it can easily sell, such as clear pop bottles and laundry-detergent jugs. Canada does not regulate the distance waste can travel, notes Cassandra Kuyvenhoven, a PhD candidate at Queen’s University who is studying the transportation of waste: “We haven’t had that kind of catalyst moment of saying, ‘We can’t do this any more, because we’re running out of space.’”.
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