A number of waste disposal and recycling firms in Ontario are telling clients they are dumping some recyclables into landfill sites, but local residential recyclables are staying out of landfills.
That according to Chatham-Kent Recycling Inc., which handles all Blue Box recycling in the municipality, as well as a number of institutional contracts.
Jacilyn Faubert, spokesperson for C-K Recycling, said the company has heard of other recyclers increasingly sending material to landfills in part due to increased costs for recycling or a lack of a market.
An article in the Toronto Star said a major waste collector told clients some of their recyclable material is headed to landfill simply because Asian markets that once accepted the items have all but dried up.
But that’s not the case for C-K Recycling.
“People are finding out their cardboard is being landfilled. Some find it is cheaper to landfill it than to recycle,” she said. “We’re just taking the hit (financially). Recycling – that’s what we’re here for.”
Rick Kucera, manager of waste and recycling for Chatham-Kent, said the overseas markets are constantly evolving.
“We’ve been fortunate to not have to do any (landfilling) with our residential acceptable material. It’s been a challenge. Some of the larger communities don’t necessarily have that luxury. They produce so much and their markets are overseas,” he said. “The markets are rebounding, but it will take several years to establish themselves.”
Calls to Waste Connections Canada (WCC), the firm that runs the Ridge Landfill, were not returned by press time.
According to an article in the Toronto Star, Waste Connections Canada informed its institutional, commercial and industrial (ICI) clients in parts of Ontario that mixed recycling – commingle bins, could wind up in Ontario landfills as the Asian market has left handlers with little choice.
WCC did say in the article that separated recycling would be picked up and processed for recycling.
The Ridge handles ICI garbage from the GTA area.
