Operations Committee Will Continue to Weigh Options for Business Recycling After Blue Box Transition
Owen Sound’s Operations Committee put off a decision on how to manage recycling for businesses and institutions after the provincial Blue Box program transitions to producer responsibility in 2026.
The City’s Operations Committee has deferred a decision on how to handle recycling collection for businesses, institutions, and other non-residential sites once the provincial Blue Box transition takes full effect at the end of this year.
At its October 16 meeting, the committee received a staff report outlining options for continuing or ending the municipal collection of recyclables from non-eligible sources such as commercial properties, daycares, places of worship, and municipal buildings.
Beginning January 1, 2026, responsibility for the residential Blue Box program will shift entirely from municipalities to packaging producers under Ontario Regulation 391/21.
While residential properties will remain covered by the new producer-responsibility system, non-eligible sources will not. The City’s current contract with Miller Waste Systems for those collections expires December 31, 2025.
Staff advised that maintaining the same level of collection service for approximately 253 non-eligible locations would cost about $120,000 per year, double the current budget.
Limiting service to the River District downtown area could reduce that cost to between $65,000 and $75,000, depending on how materials are collected.
Discontinuing the service entirely would eliminate direct municipal costs but could increase illegal set-outs and enforcement workload.
Committee members expressed concern that continuing the program without changes would impose a significant new cost on taxpayers for a service primarily used by businesses.
City Manager Tim Simmonds noted that downtown waste compliance is already low, with roughly 15 to 20 percent of garbage properly tagged each week, and that staff time spent managing curbside waste would likely rise if the program were cancelled.
Several committee members supported exploring a cost-recovery model, such as a special levy for the River District, so that recycling collection could continue without being funded by all ratepayers.
Staff also committed to providing more detailed information on the potential impact on City-owned facilities, including the Bayshore Community Centre and the Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library, as well as assessing whether cardboard collection alone could be maintained due to its resale value.
Following a lengthy discussion, Councillor Brock Hamley moved that the report be deferred to the November Operations Committee meeting to allow staff to return with additional financial details and options. The motion carried unanimously.
The updated report is expected next month, when the committee will consider whether to continue, scale back, or end municipal recycling collection for non-eligible sources starting in 2026.
You can watch the full discussion beginning at approximately 27 minutes into the meeting recording.