That was the question posed by Councillor Dan Armour during waste discussions at a District Engineering and Public Works Committee meeting on March 18.
Armour said during the last couple of months, he’s received numerous calls about empty alcohol bottles being put out in recycling bins that weren’t picked up. “I’m just wondering why, because a glass bottle is a glass bottle.”
Renee Recoskie, District Director of Waste Management and Environmental Services, said that although recycling is no longer the District’s responsibility, alcohol bottles are subject to a deposit return system. “So, of course, their preference when setting up the transition to producer responsibility was that that existig program would be utilized for alcoholic beverage containers and then the rest of the recycling stream would be managed through that new program. I will say that we in Muskoka, as well as other municipalities, have been advocating to Circular Materials on ways to approach this for residents and to try to make sure that they’re not having their recycling turned away when they’re making best efforts,” she said.
“So as far as we’re aware, that requirement has been loosened by Circular Materials so that they are still instructing GSL, who is our contractor, to pick up that material so if you do know of residents that are still experiencing challenges there, we could of course encourage them to reach out to Circular Materials but you can certainly make myself aware as well. We are trying to make sure that residents have a positive experience with recycling because it impacts what ends up going to our landfill, so we definitely want to work together on that,” added Recoskie.
You can find more information about changes to recycling in Muskoka HERE.
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Fer- the-luva!!! Is this a capital P Problem? Wonder it doesn’t headline the news. If you go in to get it, this bottle we talk about, is it that problematic to take it back? Or just inconvenient?
Is there a law that says you have to take wine and spirits bottles back? Not that I know of. So what’s the problem if someone just wants to put them in the recyclables? They are recyclable. If the government stipulates they are of such little value, why not just recycle them?
The Ford government has botched enough things so don’t demand they give something else a go. Nancy Long thinks a two dollar deposit would be in order. Why not $10.00? They charge about that for water jugs. Maybe it would encourage more people to take the empties back and fewer to have a problem.
Meanwhile, I’ll just take them back. I’ve always done it. Even back when we would walk the ditch to find them.
Recycling companies sort the recycling according to reusability, and value. The recycling plant in Bracebridge used to have cubes of crushed cans stacked outside. I suspect that they were holding them until the price of the metal went up before shipping them. Material that is of no value is usually sent to a landfill, just maybe not in Muskoka, sometimes it is even sent off shore. There is a lot of green washing that goes on in the recycling industry. AS I SAID BEFORE …..LET THE PEOPLE ON THE RECYCLING CREWS CASH IN THE RETURNABLES AS A BONUS. Containers with deposits are usually sorted out anyway, so just let the workers take them without fearing any consequences. Surprising though how this even made the news. Do district councillors not have more important things to hash out?
I believe 70 per cent of all beer purchases are aluminum tins. Use of bottles are diminishing. Does the town separate the tins for recycling? If so there should be some financial gain for the town.
I suggest that the town designate one Saturday a month for residents to put empties at the curb in their blue box. Anyone who wants to collect them could do so. At the end of the day all blue boxes whether empty or not should be removed. On a similar topic can we please go back to having one day a year where residents can put items at the curb for others to look over and take for their use or for scrap value. It was a great way of getting stuff out of the basement while keeping it out of the landfill.
Make the deposit more expensive. Possibly 2$ per bottle.
Once upon a time, many moons ago, the District would published every few years a handy-dandy guide on what could be recycled, what could be put in the trash, details on hazardous waste etc. Lots of changes have been made recently-perhaps restoring this practice would be useful.
wow no wonder we have a huge landfill issue. I have questioned some of the Districts ideas in the past but, why would anyone question this policy that’s been working for years. Especially a member of town leaders?
.Bottles are a valuable source of revenue for some groups Including Stephenson Lions… Others might collect them for 20 cent deposit return ..Don’t trash them .
This is ridiculous. If you can afford to buy booze, you can afford to return your bottles to the Beer Store. That is the point of the deposit return system and why you pay a deposit. I believe that beer bottles at least can be re-used – which is way, way better than being recycled. Not sure about wine bottles.
Why not let the recycling crews take the bottles or alcohol cans and cash them in? It would be a very small bonus for a person working in a job that gets very little thanks. If you put the returnable containers in the blue box, you obviously don’t care where they go. Beer containers are probably the most recycled/reused containers in Ontario. Ontario should follow the beer stores lead and require more deposit and return on containers.