Ontario’s recycling revamp falls short, critics say
A Coke bottle on a beach in Skye, Scotland. Photo by Will Rose / Greenpeace
By Emma McIntosh
Ontario finalized changes to blue box recycling Thursday, aiming to shift costs away from municipalities and taxpayers by making companies that create waste pay for the program. The revamped rules are a “bold step” that would standardize recycling across most of Ontario, keep more types of packaging away from landfills and encourage industry to be more efficient, provincial Environment Minister Jeff Yurek said. But critics say the new targets aren’t high enough and might leave costs in the hands of consumers.
“Ontarians will still be dealing with messes of plastic packaging we can't recycle,” Environmental Defence plastics program manager Karen Wirsig said.
Right now, recycling in Ontario happens through more than 250 local programs, many with differing rules. That system is largely stalling: nearly three-quarters of the province’s waste ends up in dumps, and a significant portion of it is exported to landfills in Michigan.
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