THUNDER BAY — The City of Thunder Bay is looking for efficiencies and new ideas–including the option of accepting more types of plastic–from whichever contractor it hires to collect and process recyclables starting next summer.
The current contract with GFL Environmental Inc. expires at the end of June. The company bought out Recool Canada in 2016 and assumed its contract with the city at the same time.
A Request for Proposals is now posted, outlining the city's requirements for the next agreement.
Jason Sherband, Manager of Solid Waste & Recycling for the city, says the bid process allows contractors to disclose if there are any "innovative options" they can offer.
"At the end of the day, you hope there's an opportunity to increase the basket of goods. We all know that people want to be able to recycle more plastics. This gives us an opportunity to explore that and see what that would cost," Sherband told Tbnewswatch in an interview Tuesday.
The municipal recycling program currently only handles plastic bottles No. 1 and No. 2.
It also accepts:
- newspapers
- flyers
- junk mail
- magazines
- soft cover books
- fine paper
- paper egg cartons
- boxboard
- old corrugated cardboard
- gable top (polycoat) beverage cartons
- aseptic (Tetra park) beverage containers
- glass bottles and jars
- aluminum and steel food and beverage cans
The city isn't interested in adding products for which there is no current market.
"The whole industry in North America is going through a correction," Sherband said. "We're not immune to that in Ontario, [but] I always look at it as if there are more opportunities for homegrown solutions, knowing that markets overseas aren't what they used to be."
He noted that In 2018, China banned much of the world’s recycling, causing significant disruption in the industry.
"It's all about supply and demand. That's why I've always said we're recycling what we know we have markets for," Sherband said.
Over the past five years, the city has recycled an average of 6,910 metric tonnes of material annually, and has increased the volume by seven percent.
Sherband said that's a significant increase because manufacturers are using lighter-weight material for products such as plastic water bottles than they did a few years ago.
"We are moving the yardsticks when it comes to waste diversion in our community," he said.
The recycling program collects from residential, multi-residential and municipal building locations only. There is no municipal collection of recyclables for the industrial, commercial and institutional sector.
However, Sherband pointed out that the company that receives the next contract must be prepared to adapt to changes in provincial recycling regulations.
"In the near future, it's moving to more producer responsibility. The agreement will have to ensure we are able to transition to that new framework when the time comes," he said.
The total cost of collecting and processing, as well as operating recycling depots, is currently $2.4 million annually.
The city and its contractor split the revenue from the sale of recycled material on a 50/50 basis.
No material may be discarded, dumped or wasted once it's collected by the contractor without the explicit approval of the city.
