Update on Programs Across Canada Roughly on billion litres of lubricating old are sold in Canada each year. About half the oil is consumed during use; the remainder is either disposed (e.g., burned, used as a dust suppressant on roads or imporperly poured down drains) or recovered, reused and recycled through re-refining. In addition to […]
Articles and Publications
Pied Piper: Where is Plastic Packaging Leading Us? (2000)
The Canadian plastics industry grew by 45 per cent between 1986 and 1997 — a growth rate three times that of other manufacturing industries and second only to electronics. With a total capacity of about 3.5-million tonnes of resin per annum, this economic behemoth accounted for $35.9-billion of economic activity last year. Plastic is truly […]
Beverage Container Recovery in Newfoundland (2000)
Newfoundland’s Beverage Container Program In early 1997, the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Environment and Labour launched the “Beverage Recycling Program” under the Waste Management Control Act. The provincewide program covers all ready-to-drink beverage containers excluding milk, nutritional supplements, refillables and containers larger than 5 litres in size. The province set target recovery rates of […]
Garbage: A Fishing Expedition (1999)
Toronto’s Solid Waste Management Marketplace Engagement Program Like other Canadian cities that are exhausting their local capacity disposal, the City of Toronto (population 2.4 million) will soon close its largest landfill. When the Keele Valley landfill shuts down in 2002, about 30 million tonnes of municipal and commercial wastes and recyclables will be left without […]
Landfill technology: Biological Leachate Treatment (1999)
As an alternative to conventional methods for processing organically contaminated wastewater, businesses and small municipalities may use systems modelled on natural ecosystems. Biological wastewater systems or artificial aquatic filtration systems are effective and cost-effective, but their application has only recently been extended to the treatment of landfill leachate. The systems are essentially natural wetlands housed […]
Beverage Container Recovery in Manitoba (1999)
Flat Tax Equals Flat Performance Like Ontario, Manitoba’s beverage container collection is consolidated with the collection of other recyclable materials and (with the exception of beer containers) doesn’t have a deposit-refund system. Of the 138 municipalities (of a total of 202) that provide collection services for recyclables, 58 per cent do so through depots and […]
Beverage Container Recovery in BC (1999)
Brand owner responsibility increases recovery rates, reduces taxpayer subsidies Last October, the Province of British Columbia implemented the largest expansion of a deposit-return program for beverage containers in North America. After only eight months, the program has been described as “a very successful operation” by Malcolm Harvey, communications manager of Encorp Pacific Canada, a not-for-profit […]
Beverage Container Recovery in Saskachewan (1999)
Saskatchewan’s unique deposit return program boasts one of the highest recovery rates in North America. It’s 94 per cent, and is almost entirely operated by disabled individuals. SARCAN Recycling—a subsidiary of the Saskatchewan Association of Rehabilitation Centres (SARC)—was set up to handle the non-refillable beverage container recycling contract for the province. The association provides a […]
Recycling Programs in “La Belle Province” (1999)
Of the six provinces this column has reviewed to date, Quebec’s approach to beverage container recovery is the most unique. Unlike other Canadian deposit-refund jurisdictions, Quebec’s system for soft drink and beer containers is exclusively return-to-retail. Other beverage containers are recycled through the curbside collection system. Beer and soft-drink containers account for 75 per cent […]
P.E.I.’s Beverage Container Program — Highest recovery rate in Canada (1999)
This eighth article in a series on Canadian beverage-container recovery programs explores Prince Edward Island’s unique refillable container policy and recovery system. As with most North American jurisdictions, nonrefillable soft drink and beer containers became available in P.E.I. in the early 1970s. Marketed as part of the “new lifestyle,” disposable bottles and can sales soon […]
