With responsibility for recycling shifting from communities to producers over the next few years, Northumberland County has secured a contract for the continuation of its blue box pickup program through the end of 2025.
By the end of 2026, all communities across the province will be operating under the Extended Producer Responsibility system where the organizations that produce the products and packaging will be responsible for the Blue Box Program and every community will be able to recycle the same list of materials.
Circular Materials Ontario is the administrator of the common collection system established on behalf of all producer responsibility organizations operating in Ontario.
Northumberland has negotiated a contract with CMO to extend its blue box pickup program until the end of 2025 which will allow the county to continue administering the recycling collection program alongside waste collection services during the transition, providing curbside and deposit collections for the Blue Box program on behalf of CMO.
Associate Director of Operations for Public Works Adam McCue says, “With this contract in place, residents will not notice any changes to the curbside collection program for waste and recycling during this period. It will be a seamless transition to producer responsibility.”
Under the terms of the contract, the county will receive funds to continue promoting and educating residents about recycling practices, providing accessible support via telephone and web channels, and facilitating curbside pickup of recyclable materials, as well as collection and transfer of recyclable materials at all County Community Recycling Centres.
Northumberland County has also finalized the sale of its Material Recovery Facility in Grafton, in accordance with the new regulations.
In March, the county announced a conditional offer of purchase from Emterra Environmental and now that all conditions have been met, Emterra will take over the facility on January 5, 2024.
Emterra Environmental will use the Grafton facility as a receiving facility for recycling materials collected from residents in and around the county, and they will continue to explore opportunities to increase the volume of recyclable materials they manage at this facility in the future.
Northumberland County’s Blue Box collection program has played a crucial role in the county’s waste management efforts. Over the past 26 years, this program has successfully diverted over 300,000 tonnes (660 million pounds) of recyclable materials from ending up in landfill.
More information about this transition is available on the county’s website at Northumberland.ca/ProducerResponsibility and through the province at Ontario.ca/page/producer-responsibility-ontarios-waste-diversion-programs.
