Elise Stolte: Recycling as we know it failed. Edmonton seeks new approach before reinvesting
We believed a fairy tale for decades, virtuously filling blue bags and setting them by the curb.
Workers sort recycling at Edmonton Waste Management Centre in December 2017.
The financial impact of China’s recycling crackdown hit Edmonton much harder than predicted.
In 2018, China cracked down on Western countries shipping bales of poorly sorted recyclables — junk plastic that was melted down and sometimes burned or thrown in waterways from family-run, poorly-regulated recycling shops.
Their crack-down spread to other Asian countries. It changed the global market. Now low-quality plastics and dirty, poorly-sorted paper are nearly impossible to off-load.
It was good news for the Earth; bad news for Edmonton’s budget.
Last year, officials estimated the recycling budget would take a $1 million hit. That was actually $3.5 million, and despite the increased cost, Edmonton recycled less material. It sent 15,640 tonnes of blue bag material to the landfill last year, 4,140 tonnes more than the year before.
It’s time we realize what a failed experiment this version of recycling has been. We believed a fairy tale for decades, virtuously filling blue bags and setting them by the curb. We thought simply collecting the plastic, paper, glass and tin, doing a basic sort and selling it overseas made it just disappear.
Now the pigeons are coming home to roost. Unwanted Canadian trash in the Philippines spun into a major diplomatic row — to the point where the Philippine president threatened to declare war. Across North America, municipalities are burning and landfilling recyclables. Last week, Lacombe cancelled its curb side recycling program all together over the rising costs.
But it’s not all hopeless.
Calgary’s predicament sounded crazy when residents learned their city was spending $300,000 a year just to stockpile 100 shipping containers of hard-to recycle clear clamshell plastics. It refused to give in and landfill the material, now that the clamshell had already been collected and sorted.
That was last month. But Calgary’s dedication is paying off. They’re now sending this clear plastic to the Lower Mainland to get a second, more rigorous sort. Then the plastic gets shipped back to Calgary to be soaked in a caustic solution to remove adhesive and labels.
Clean and uncontaminated, it’s finally shredded, melted and turned into easy-to-process pellets locally. A responsible, albeit expensive and resource-intensive process.
We need a better solution, one that recognizes how much work recycling really is.
Look back up the line. Who is creating all this junk? Yes, blame goes to all of us consumers who get and discard single-use containers with nearly every food purchase.
But the responsibility doesn’t stop there. The companies deciding how to wrap products need to step up. And because it would be foolish to think they’ll reform just to be green, governments need to charge for waste created.
But that’s not just my idea. Every other province either has or is working on a system of “extended producer responsibility” — a program to charge companies based on the amount and type of packaging they create.
The money can add up. Officials told city councillors a system similar to B.C.’s would mean an extra $13 million a year to off-set recycling costs in Edmonton.
The cost of more responsible packaging likely gets passed down to the consumer, but the fees pay for processing waste at the other end. Hopefully, the system also reduces the amount of plastic created in the first place.
Unsurprisingly, all major municipalities are now behind this lobby effort. They’re starting consultation with industry, researching the best approach and trying to secure a joint meeting with Minister of Environment Jason Nixon.
But even that won’t solve all of Edmonton’s problems. Here, the situation is compounded by the fact local equipment is just so old. The recycling facility was built in 1998 and still uses hand sorting, people pulling different types of recyclables off conveyor belts at each station.
What plastic they recover is now going to companies in Ontario, along with the tin. But most paper is still going overseas, now to South Korea instead of China. Only the paper picked from Edmonton’s community bin program with the large boxes in shopping centre parking lots is clean enough to use locally
Officials says sorting equipment needs to be completely replaced at a cost $37 million. But, with council’s blessing, they decided to hold off. The future for recycling is just too uncertain.
“We don’t want to go through any significant changes now,” says Michael Robertson, who’s responsible for Edmonton’s recycling facility. “It’s not the best, but we’re doing the best we can with the situation.”
Funny. If you step back, that comment is actually refreshing, no? For decades, we were sold a bill of goods on how great Edmonton recycling was. Now the city is at least being honest: there is no silver bullet. Recycling is not easy. We need new solutions.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Michael Robertson.
