Industry News

May 15, 2019

Recycling is broken. Can these robots help?

We're in the middle of a full-fledged international recycling crisis. The only hope may be to deal with the mess ourselves.

May 15, 2019

Corbella: Jason Nixon looking to expand electronic recycling program

Alberta’s new environment minister is considering expanding the mandatory electronics recycling program to help keep mercury, lead and other toxins out of the province’s water, and keep valuable commodities out of our landfills.

May 14, 2019

Reduce, reuse, recycle, rejected: Why Canada’s recycling industry is in crisis mode

For decades, Canadians tossed their recyclables into blue bins and never looked back. But with China cutting its imports of scrap plastic by 96 per cent, Canada’s recycling industry is struggling

May 13, 2019

Nelson: Calgary’s spreading garbage empire appears unstoppable

Undoubtedly, most folk have heard the expression a storm in a teacup. Well, here in Calgary we’ve a battle in a clamshell brewing. The item in question — a plastic container generally used to hold pastries and cakes — is a pain in the posterior for our gung-ho recycling warriors down at city hall.

May 7, 2019

Mack Trucks Unveils Fully Electric Mack® LR Refuse Demonstration Model

Mack Trucks unveiled today its highly anticipated Mack® LR battery electric vehicle (BEV) at WasteExpo 2019. Combining the refuse industry-leading design of the Mack LR model with a fully electric Mack drivetrain, the demonstration model will begin real-world testing in 2020 in the demanding operations of the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY).

May 6, 2019

PlasticActionCentre.ca is Canada’s First National Resource for Knowledge and Action on Plastic Waste

Canada understands the consequences of plastic waste and is fully engaged like never before: governments at all levels are initiating new policies; organizations are improving business models; and individuals are eager to learn more.

May 6, 2019

City Spending $300k a year to store unwanted blue cart plastics raises ire

The city [of Calgery] is spending about $300,000 a year to stockpile clamshell plastic packaging collected by its blue cart program, leading one member of council to wonder if the material should be buried or burned.

May 3, 2019

Montreal closes two ecocentres, reduces operations at five others

The city of Montreal has closed the ecocentres in LaSalle effective immediately while cutting back on the opening hours at five other dumps. The work-training centre in LaSalle is also closed for an undetermined amount of time.

May 3, 2019

Winnipeg’s recycling needs to get cleaner; instead, people are putting dirty diapers in the blue bin

Dirty diapers and online shopping packaging are part of the reason Winnipeg recycling contamination has seen a 38 per cent jump in the last two years, the city says.

May 2, 2019

Canada makes formal offer to bring home trash that Philippines threatened ‘war’ over

Two weeks after being threatened with war, Canada is offering to bring home the containers full of garbage that sparked a diplomatic dispute with the Philippines.

May 2, 2019

Charbonneau: Recycling is broken

IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME: throw away stuff guilt-free because others can use it. Now it looks more like wishful thinking. Manufacturers encouraged the scheme because they wouldn’t have to deal with the mess caused by excess packaging.

May 2, 2019

If Canadian trash is turning into a diplomatic headache, why can’t we dispose of it ourselves?

A spokesperson for the Filipino president was unequivocal in his message: get Canadian trash out of the Philippines or risk jeopardizing seven decades of diplomatic relations.

May 2, 2019

WUDRICK: Next up for the Trudeau Liberals — a plastic tax?

They say misery loves company and for the Trudeau Liberals that apparently includes miserable tax policy. It hasn’t even been a month since Ottawa imposed its hated carbon tax on much of the country and lo and behold, it already has another new tax on the table.

May 2, 2019

Presentation on recycling, waste diversion in the Comox Valley

Do you have questions about recycling and waste diversion? Would you like to know more about what can be recycled and where? Or where our recycling ends up?

May 2, 2019

Where do recyclables from Shuswap homes end up?

Oceans turned into rolling, floating seas of plastic. Young children in poor countries scrambling through mountains of dirty plastic to find something valuable. Most recently, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte demanding Canada pick up garbage that was reportedly sent by a Canadian company in 2014 to Manila that still sits there.

May 2, 2019

Carcasses and fish guts? ‘Not in our backyard,’ says Chapel Arm mayor

The prospect of mink waste, fish guts and slaughterhouse remains all brewing under one roof has Chapel Arm's mayor raising a stink about a composting company looking to set up shop in town.

May 1, 2019

How will Lethbridge’s Curbside Recycling program fair in Canada’s changing industry?

The recycling industry is quickly changing in Canada as outside markets become less accepting of low-quality products, but will that affect the local curbside recycling program set to roll out city-wide in Lethbridge later this month?

May 1, 2019

Canada’s recycling industry is on life-support. Here’s how to fix it

At the Merlin Plastics plant in Delta, B.C., beads of reflective, grey plastic bounce along a processing line. What was once a detergent bottle has been washed, ground down and reduced to pellets so that it can be sold to create new bottles. This is the future of recycling

Feb 27, 2019

Since China’s ban, recycling in the US has gone up in flames

The conscientious citizens of Philadelphia continue to put their pizza boxes, plastic bottles, yogurt containers, and other items into recycling bins. But in the past three months, half of these recyclables have been loaded onto trucks, taken to a hulking incineration facility, and burned, according to the city’s government.