Columns
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Five Earth Day tips from TerraCycle
With Earth Day right around the corner, thoughts turn to how to save the planet and reduce our collective negative impact on the environment. While that sounds like a monumental task, TerraCycle, the company that specializes in recycling-the-unrecyclable, has five…
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Food views must keep evolving
I regularly walk past a panhandling man on my way to lunch. Exposing my own biases, he seems a little too well-dressed to ask for money, and with the embarrassment of my own ignorance, I shuffle by. It makes…
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BC bottle group fights to classify milk as beverage
The BC Bottle & Recycling Depot Association has launched a campaign to classify milk as a beverage in British Columbia to boost recycling and promote a healthy environment. In an effort to have milk classified as a beverage, the BC Bottle & Recycling Depot Association (BCBRDA)…
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New Molson Plant: Minister Must Show Leadership
In the wake of breweries’ shift towards cans in recent years, and following the end of the Recyc-Québec agreement two years ago, Teamsters Local Union 1999 made representations to the previous Environment Minister, David Heurtel. Since the arrival of Minister Isabelle Melançon,…
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Welcome Back, Dear Readers…
This is our first Solid Waste & Recycling newsletter in some time, following a change in ownership. It’s good to be back, and we’re happy to have you right here with us. We will be publishing this e-newsletter twice monthly with the…
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Packaging Stewards Should Be Rewarded for Using Recycled Content
Recycled content is central to the “Circular Economy” approach that Ontario and some other provinces say they want to adopt. It keeps raw materials flowing through the economy longer, reduces the pressure to extract more virgin materials from the…
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Ontario Blue Box Recovery Rate Slips, but Paper Steady
The reported recovery rate of Ontario’s residential Blue Box system has fallen to its lowest level since 2005. The draft recovery rates, to be finalised by Stewardship Ontario in December, show a 2016 recovery rate of 62.4%, down 2% on…
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Recycled Content Must Be Recognised in Setting Circular Economy Targets
The Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) is in the process of considering what it calls specific material “management” targets for Ontario Blue Box recyclables such as paper, plastic, glass, steel and aluminum. It has already stated that…
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The Big “Hurry Up” on the Blue Box in Case the Liberals Lose
When Ontario released the final version of its waste strategy six months ago, dealing with the future financing of the province’s popular Blue Box program was at the backend of the queue. Sorting out the respective roles and responsibilities of…
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Circular Economy or Spinning Our Wheels?
The Circular Economy (CE to some) has become something of a buzzword of late, just like sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) before it. Good intentions, but a lot of public relations too. Perhaps we’re being too cynical, but the…
