Ford government's changes to recycling will hasten landfill crisis, municipalities warn
In a letter to Environment Minister Todd McCarthy, AMO president Robin Jones said the suggested changes — including the cancellation of new blue box programs in apartments and condos — would 'exacerbate Ontario's projected landfill capacity crisis, which is expected to reach its limit in less than 10 years.'
Landfill controversy is already exploding in Dresden, a southwestern Ontario community where the Premier Doug Ford's controversial new Bill 5 could be used to fast-track the reopening of an inactive landfill site against community wishes — and potentially without a traditional environmental assessment.
Posted on the Environmental Registry of Ontario in early June, the proposals, if passed, would 'undoubtedly impact waste diversion rates,' Jones said in her letter.
Ontario has a previously stated goal of 50 per cent diversion by 2030, which means the province would need to divert an additional 2.5 to 3.8 million tonnes of material, based on 2022 numbers from an AMO report.
The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks suggested three significant changes, citing 'unanticipated' costs affecting producers:
To reduce the materials going to landfill, the ministry proposed a percentage could go to 'energy from waste' — also known as incineration or, burning materials to create electricity.
A spokesperson for McCarthy said the government 'heard concerns, particularly from small businesses, about unanticipated and unexplained cost increases to meet their obligations under Ontario's producer-run blue box system.'
The changes 'will improve transparency' for all producers, said Alexandru Cioban, McCarthy's press secretary.
But Jones said the government's proposed retreat undermines the goals of 'extended producer responsibility,' which basically means, 'If you make it, you take it.'
Ontario's transition to extended producer responsibility is nearly complete, with producers taking on the cost of programs that collect and recycle the products and packaging they sell. These programs, administered by the not-for-profit 'producer responsibility organization' Circular Materials, take in hazardous waste and electronics as well as traditional blue box materials.
In 2022, Ontario generated up to 15.5 million tonnes of non-hazardous waste, which is equivalent to 1.127 tonnes per person, according to AMO's Ontario Baseline Waste and Recycling Report.
In Jones's July 7 letter, she said elimination of the planned blue box program in multi-residential buildings will create a 'fragmented 'two-tiered' system' where some Ontarians have access to recycling while others do not.
'Residents rightly expect robust recycling programs and environmental protection, creating an urgent imperative for municipalities to fill these public spaces service gaps,' she wrote.
Large cities, she said, are adding thousands of new housing units and those residents 'will be left without access to the common recycling collection system.'
Industry insiders say many municipalities stopped buying new trucks or upgrading recycling infrastructure because of the expansion plans. Now that those plans face the prospect of delays or elimination, municipalities are scrambling and will likely be forced to pick up the costs.
'This amendment,' said Jones, 'pulls the rug out from under existing plans.'
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