Region of Waterloo Waste Management says the region’s recycling income is down 50 per cent for 2019. Even though recycling income was down, Waste Management still generated a $2.2 million profit from recyclable material in 2019.
The reason for the decline is because China — who used to take in half of the world’s recyclables — banned recycle importation.
“Which then and suddenly and automatically creates a flood of recyclables everywhere else, so that has lowered the revenue that we get for recycling, however, thankfully we have North American markets for all of our recyclables that get put into the blue box,” said Mike Ursu, Waste Management Operations Manager.
One of the locations in North America where they drop off recyclables is located in Kentucky, U.S.
“Berea, Kentucky has a mill down there that buys the used beverage cans and then smelts them down which is then turned into a new roll of aluminium, and then is used to create more cans,” mentioned Ursu.
He said the most profitable type of recycled material is plastic bottles, while aluminium cans were a close second.
Whatever revenue Waste Management gets is then projected onto next year’s operating budget. “We project what it will be then the operating budget goes forward for the next year with that projection, so then it becomes an enabler for the promotions and education of recycling.”
Ursu added in 2017, Waterloo Region went to bi-weekly garbage pick-up, which prompted more residents to recycle, with the region reporting a five per cent increase by weight for materials placed in the blue box.
