Recycling pilot project in downtown Guelph a success

The City of Guelph is now six-months into a pilot project, intended to decrease the amount of recyclable material collected in the downtown, from ending up in landfill, and the early results are showing its working.

When the pandemic hit, the Guelph stopped collecting recycling in the core. At the time, it was done to protect workers, as it was unknown how the virus was transmitted and the city decided it was safer to limit points of contact for waste collectors.

This past January, Guelph resumed its downtown blue box program and launched the recycling pilot project.

It sees workers inspecting blue boxes to ensure the materials aren’t contaminated in a way that would prevent their processing at the Material Recovery Facility (MRF).

Cameron Walsh, Division Manager Solid Waste Resources, Environmental Services, City of Guelph while speaking to The Mike Farwell Show, explained why contaminated material is problematic.

“If it enters the MRF, it actually takes up valuable time, staff and processing that can be used to remove other material and it ends up in waste anyway,” he said. “It can actually reduce the performance of the MRF.”

The early results show the pilot is working. Although Walsh couldn’t give a fully accurate number, he estimates around 70 per cent of blue box materials collected in the downtown are being recycled.

“That’s about 4.2 tonnes a week we’re pulling out of the downtown and getting back to market and out of landfill.”

The pilot project also has an education element attached to it where the city helps inform businesses and residents what contamination looks like and how to sort materials accordingly.

The program was informed by collection programs at the city’s high-rise apartments, townhouse complexes and multi-residential units. Lessons learned in the downtown could then be used to improve residential curbside collection.