By Cecilia Nasmith
Looking ahead to the province-wide transition of responsibility for the recycling system from municipalities and First Nations to producers of packaging and paper products, Northumberland County has accepted a conditional offer from Emterra Environmental to purchase Grafton's Material Recovery Facility.
The agreement, achieved through a competitive process, covers the 16-acre property, the 55,000-sq.-ft. building and the material-recovery equipment.
The move follows a public procurement process launched in December as a result of Ontario's plans to transition to the Producer Responsibility policy between 2023 and 2026, where companies that design, create and market products and packaging become fully responsible for managing and paying for the life cycle of these items.
The province announced these plans in 2019, touting them as a means of promoting recycling innovation, increasing Ontario's recycling rates and reducing costs for taxpayers – though the move eliminates a revenue stream for Northumberland County taxpayers, as recovered materials from the MRF could be marketed with proceeds going into county coffers. At the same time, it will save the county about $3-million annually (the costs of administering a recycling program). These dollars will be reinvested into strengthening waste services, including administering and maintaining the county's one remaining landfill site in Brighton.
Despite the transition, Northumberland will continue to provide collection services for waste, green-bin, and leaf-and-yard waste, but will no longer deliver recycling services.
The conditional offer to purchase is anticipated to close next January – the date by which the province projects that producers will assume responsibility for recycling collection services locally – and financial details will be disclosed at that time. The county will continue to communicate with residents in the interim as more information becomes available to support the seamless transition of the local recycling system to producers. Emterra Environmental has shared plans to continue operating the site as a receiving facility for blue-box materials, while preserving as many positions for current staff as possible.
“A public competitive procurement process was conducted by the county to ensure a strong return on this long-term investment,” Warden Mandy Martin said in the announcement.
“Over the past 26 years, our dedicated and hard-working staff at the MRF have pioneered innovative solutions to reduce our environmental footprint and provide exceptional service to the residents of Northumberland County, diverting over 600-million pounds of waste from landfill.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with a respected environmental waste management company who will continue to manage the blue-box materials at the facility and engage current staff.”
