HALDIMAND—Many properties in Haldimand saw the end of municipal recycling services as of January 1, 2024 following provincial legislation that transferred responsibility for recycling costs from municipalities to packaging and paper product producers.
The affected properties are those zoned industrial, commercial, or institutional. These businesses are now responsible for disposing of their recycling, with one option to transport it to the Canborough Waste Management Facility outside Dunnville where additional bins have been installed and no tipping fee is charged for recyclable materials.
According to Haldimand Public Works Operations General Manager Dan McKinnon, the County has been fielding complaints from several local businesses since the change took effect.
“Most of the feedback we’ve been hearing from local businesses is a sense of frustration at the change,” he said, “especially if they’d missed any of the earlier communications we’d sent out prior to the change.”
He noted Haldimand County’s blue box recycling program is now managed by Circular Materials Ontario, which is the “administrator of the common collection system and a not-for-profit organization that is committed to building an efficient and effective recycling system in Ontario.”
Rob Phillips, president of both the Hagersville Chamber of Commerce and local car dealership Heaslip Ford, believes that the change was not properly communicated to business owners ahead of time, leading to some confusion.
“It does certainly seem that the changes have not been communicated to, or perhaps not heard/understood by, some of the businesses in the community. Hopefully these businesses will be shown some support and options shared with them,” he said. “Perhaps the communication went to the property owner and was not communicated by them to the tenant.”
McKinnon noted that the County has been in contact with businesses about the transition since last spring: “We had initially reached out to all business property owners and BIAs/Chambers to help get a survey out to gather feedback and heard back from less than 15% of business and/or property owners. Following Council decision, another letter was sent out to the business property owners and BIAs/Chambers advising them of when the change would take effect.”
Caledonia Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jessica Lymburner asserted, “The information given to the Chamber was that questions from our community should be directed to the waste department, but it appears that their response to these inquiries is to go back to their local BIAs to organize recycling efforts locally.”
Lymburner noted that neither the local BIAs nor Chambers have the necessary infrastructure to support the planning and implementation of a separate recycling program for their members, adding, “This additional cost is not something that should be carried by the businesses that already pay taxes to the County.”
She shared an excerpt from an email by Mike Evers of Evers Financial to the County, in which Evers shared the same sentiment: “Don’t download a cost to the business community for a service for which we are already paying taxes. That amounts to double taxation – which few small businesses can afford…. A large percentage of family-owned small businesses are already struggling, and this is another nail in their collective coffins.”
Phil Hauser, owner of Hauser’s Pharmacy, highlighted the impact the change in service will have on smaller businesses: “In general they produce lower amounts of recycling or garbage material compared to larger businesses, meaning the scale of process required to replace the municipal recycling may not be at economies of scale that is unburdensome for small and medium businesses.”
He continued, “The overall result of the loss of this program means that costs for every business are likely to go up. In an environment where the costs of doing business and inflation continue to rise, this is one more increase that is unwelcome.”
We asked McKinnon if the County had considered any other options to assist businesses with recycling, such as establishing free drop-off sites in each of Haldimand’s urban areas, thus eliminating the issue of transporation to Canborough.
“Though having multiple drop-off areas seems like a simple solution, there are provincial regulations that make this option difficult,” he replied. “Ministry approval is required for any drop-off location and that was not seen as something that could be accomplished in a timely manner. We know that Canborough is not an ideal location for everyone in Haldimand, but the County has arranged for additional bins on site that will accept materials from non-eligible properties. This allows businesses a place to recycle free of charge while the County can determine if any favourable future options develop for non-eligible sources.”
With businesses having to transport the materials themselves or pay someone else to do it, there are concerns some businesses may give up on recycling altogether, instead putting those materials out for the continuing garbage collection.
“It is always disappointing to see when there are barriers, extra costs, etc. associated with doing the right thing for the environment. It certainly seems that we once embraced being environmentally friendly/environmentally conscious, but now a cost benefit discussion comes into play,” said Phillips.
Lymburner believes the change will result in “significantly less potential recyclable materials being properly sorted and disposed of” and “will simply add more waste material to our landfills. We should be implementing programs to encourage recycling – not the opposite.”
Hauser added, “A lot of businesses take pride in their community. Participating in a recycling program is often seen as a social responsibility and a way to participate in creating a better future. The loss of the community program means fewer businesses will be able to recycle their materials, or puts up barriers for the material recycling. I’m hearing a lot of businesses would rather recycle their materials than have to put them into the regular garbage collection.”
On that sentiment, McKinnon agrees: “The County doesn’t wish for recycling to be disposed of in landfills or illegal dumping to occur, and we hope that the residents and business owners of Haldimand don’t as well. While this new regulation may create more steps for some businesses to recycle, it does not make it impossible. As has always been the case, each facility needs to decide for itself how committed to recycling it wants to be, and while we understand that this won’t be an ideal situation for some, we still encourage businesses to do what they think is right for our environment.”
Hauser believes the issue creates an opportunity for Haldimand’s business community to speak out in a united voice, and that “this is an opportunity for Council to provide a solution for those left out of this change.”
Lymburner concluded, encapsulating the overall reaction to the change in service, “While we understand this was a decision made at the provincial level, we are disappointed that the decision was made at all. As a chamber, we have a formal letter pending for the provincial government in opposition to this plan.”
