Automated recycling collection coming to Thunder Bay this summer | CBC News

· Posted: May 01, 2024 3:48 PM EDT | Last Updated: May 1

Some big changes are coming to the City of Thunder Bay's curbside recycling program this summer.

On July 1, the city will switch to automated recycling collection and residents will be required to put recyclable materials in wheeled, 360-litre bins.

Blue bags will no longer be accepted as of July 1.

Jason Sherband, the city's manager of solid waste and recycling services, said all households in Thunder Bay will receive one recycling bin at no cost. Deliveries are expected to begin the week of May 5 and continue into June.

The bins, however, can't be used for recycling until July 1, Sherband said.

"The unique thing about these is that they are what we call a split-body bin. So, a divider straight down the middle — you can put your containers on one side, your paper products on the other."

However, Sherband said, there will be a limit on the number of items that can be recycled with the new bins.

"If you've got excess cardboard that can't fit in, you can twine it and tie it and put it beside the bin."

If a household has excess containers, however, they won't be collected until the next recycling collection date (the schedule will remain the same as it is now, with recycling collected every two weeks).

The move is the result of a change in provincial regulations that shifts responsibility for municipal recycling programs in Ontario to the producers of paper products and packaging, as part of the Enhanced Producer Responsibility Program.

That means that as of July 1, the city will no longer be "operationally or financially" responsible for residential recycling.

Sherband said the change to recycling collection is the first of a series of significant changes to waste collection in Thunder Bay.

"We are moving to automated carts for garbage here in the near future," Sherband said. "We're also going to be implementing a food and organic waste, or a green bin, program here."

Green bin collection will also be automated, he said.

"Eventually, every resident is going to have three bins at the end of their driveway — garbage recycling and then organics," Sherband said. "Over the next two years, you're going to start to see those changes as well."