By now most local businesses know the days of placing their recycling — carefully broken down boxes, bagged styrofoam packing materials, bottles and cans — at the curb are coming to an end. The municipally funded Blue Box program stops next August.

Recycling collection in the Quinte area will then fall under the Ontario Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act. The legislation shifts the burden of recycling onto producers. The County stands to realize $1.1 million in savings as Circular Materials Ontario (CMO) takes charge of packaging and product recapture. It’s great news — except for all those who aren’t eligible for collection.

Collection at commercial locations on Main Street in Prince Edward County stops next summer, leaving out commercial-tax-paying small businesses, hotels, and restaurants. About 500 locations will be deemed non-eligible for curbside collection come August, over half of them in Picton.

The Municipality plans to divert some of the savings, about $200,000, to an expanded-hours pilot program for transfer sites in Wellington and Sophiasburgh to allow business owners more time. It will also provide central recycling bins for small businesses. 

But a special collection run for the 6 percent deemed ineligible for collection would cost over $450,000 a year. 

Behind-the-Scenes Advocacy

Mark Rose, Executive Director of the Picton Business Improvement Association, says municipalities are pushing back. They are noting that trucks laden with recyclable materials will be travelling right past small businesses.

“The advocacy is ongoing at the provincial level and it’s going on locally as well. We encourage all businesses in Prince Edward County affected by this change to reach out to Bay of Quinte MPP Tyler Allsopp, who, as a small business owner and a former municipal councillor, should understand this situation perfectly,” Mr. Rose said.

 “Environmentally, it’s such a step backwards in 2024. We should be developing ways to make it easier for compost collection at restaurants and instead we are scaling back recycling. It’s a head scratcher.”

The blue box recycling program cost Ontario municipalities $171 million a year.

MPP Tyler Allsopp noted Prince Edward County will continue to have the option to arrange collection services for commercial, industrial, and institutional locations and to determine how to fund those services. Which is what is happening with expanded transfer site hours.

“For those businesses no longer eligible, I will be happy to bring their concerns forward to my colleagues around the caucus table,” he said. “As the transition to producer responsibilities continues, our government will keep working to find ways to reduce burdens and keep costs down. I’m committed to being a strong voice for local businesses and working on solutions that support their prosperity.”

In larger centers, like Kingston, downtown businesses are already responsible for their own recycling.

But through Picton, Bloomfield, and Wellington, Main Street is a mixed zone of residential and commercial buildings. Many stores have tenants living above them. Commercial recycling is placed next to residential recycling. How will the recycling truck driver know which is which? Will there even be routes through the commercial cores of towns and villages?

Private Solutions

Green Gables in Bloomfield once tried out a cardboard bin of their own. Owner Diana Cooper said the cost, $500 a month, did not make sense. There were also contractual pickups and tipping fees — even when the bin was empty. 

Ms. Cooper said she appreciated the expanded transfer site hours, but said small business owners with limited staff open seven days a week will not be able to take advantage of them. 

Many business owners  don’t have the time, means or staff to make a weekly recycling run.

“It’s just one more thing that makes owning a small business in Prince Edward County so difficult,” she stated. 

“The question I have for the people who came up with the Ontario Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act is: what is this trying to accomplish? It’s great municipalities are saving money but what exactly is this doing for the environment?”

 “Honestly, it looks like a learn as we go scenario,” Wellington Councillor Corey Engelsdorfer said. A member of the Quinte Waste Solutions board, Mr. Engelsdorfer said this region is one of the last in Ontario to transition from municipal to producer-collected recycling — and that was by design. 

“There’s a growing thought that, eventually, the producers will start to recapture it all and there won’t be any non-eligible sources. That’s what we are pushing for,” he said.

“I can tell you the smaller municipalities that make up the QWS board are not going to be able to offer anything and the sad reality is that a lot of recycling material is going to end up in landfills.”