Around one tonne per day of downtown recycling has been diverted from the landfill since January, as the city rebooted its downtown recycling collection and looks to improve its downtown waste action plan.
The city paused downtown collection of recyclable materials at the beginning of the pandemic, and didn’t start collecting them again until January of this year.
Collection was stopped, in part because of the pandemic and because downtown waste is problematic: it’s a communal waste system, meaning it’s used by visitors, businesses and residents.
“So accountability isn't as clear as it is in the traditional residential system, where the cart belongs to a home,” solid waste division manager Cameron Walsh told GuelphToday.
Often, the contamination rate downtown is around 37 per cent compared to 15 per cent in residential areas – and that’s with cardboard removed from downtown bins, since they typically have a “disproportionate” amount compared to residential.
Contaminated waste means organics, recycling and garbage aren’t separated properly. If over 19 per cent of the contents are contaminated, it’s deemed unsuitable for sorting and taken to the transfer station, then landfill. Less than 19 per cent contamination can be manually sorted and distributed through three streams – organic, waste and recycling.
Because downtown waste was being diverted to the landfill, the city's overall capture rate (a measure of the recyclable material the city can get back and market) in the material recovery facility improved by two per cent from 2019 to 2023.
Now the city is hoping to maintain or better that rate as it reintroduces downtown waste back into the recycling system.
Part of this work has included expanding the team, including other resources in the city like the operations department, bylaw, business development and more.
“We couldn’t do it alone,” he said.
With this help, since January they’ve coordinated resources downtown as part of a pilot project to conduct quality control by pre-screening bins for items that shouldn’t be there before the truck gets to them.
They’re also working to identify hotspots for high levels of contaminated waste. Once they’ve identified hot spots, they plan to target information and education work.
Walsh said preliminary feedback from the community and the Material Recovery Facility shows the pilot is already having a positive impact in terms of downtown cleanliness and the ability to process the reintroduced downtown material.
“This is where folks paying attention to what you’re putting in what bin is really helpful” for the system to work as efficiently as possible, he said.
As part of their next steps, the city is introducing two large bins, one for garbage and one for cardboard, as a pilot. One possible location is at the southwest corner of the Macdonell Street lot.
This is to encourage proper sorting and combat the large amount of cardboard being stuffed into the garbage.
Likewise, Walsh said he thinks identifying hotspots will be able to better influence sorting practices through education.
He also pointed to ongoing work to divert organic waste from landfills through the city’s partnership with the Guelph-Wellington Commercial Food Waste Diversion Collective.
“We’re also looking at small waste public outreach,” he said.
Throughout June, an environmental consulting firm will be sampling downtown waste containers as part of the city's four-season waste composition audit, to help determine whether material is clean enough to recycle properly, and other ways they can improve.
Walsh said they’re seeing a lot of merit to the current approach, but whether this will be a permanent practice, they’re looking at how to resource it going forward to see if they can utilize existing complements.
“The preliminary results are (that) this is working. And it's helpful on many fronts, both environmental front in terms of diversion, revenue as we move towards transition in the blue box, and in keeping the downtown environment vibrant and a nice place to do business and visit.”
