Chaque jeudi soir je me bute à deux questions qui vont de pair, celle de la consommation et celle de la gestion durable des matières résiduelles ou, autrement dit, à cette nouvelle marotte des gouvernements qu’est « l’économie circulaire ». Car le jeudi soir, c’est le soir du recyclage. Je fais d\’abord le tour des chambres et […]
Du papier, du papier partout et pas une seule rognure à perdre Read More »
Every Tuesday night I come face-to-face with the twin issues of consumption and “sustainable materials management” or the latest buzzword favoured by governments, the “circular economy.” For Tuesday night is Recycling Night. From the bathroom and bedroom, I gather toilet rolls and tissue, envelopes and writing paper. From the kitchen and dining room, I grab
Paper, paper, everywhere, and not a scrap to waste Read More »
The good news is that the reported recovery rates for almost every single material category in Ontario’s Blue Box have improved over the last 13 years, some by as much as 20 percentage points. The bad news is that several categories have made very little progress and lag way behind the others, and that the
The good, the bad, and the ugly about Ontario’s Blue Box Read More »
When you crunch the numbers on Canada’s various provincial Blue Box systems, one fact stands out more than any other. The Blue Box is basically a Paper Box, part of a larger feeder supply network for Canadian and other paper recycling mills. Paper’s overwhelming dominance is more obvious, of course, in the many “deposit” provinces
Over 75% of what the Blue Box collects is paper, and it has the highest recovery rates Read More »
Chickens are not something we would normally write about. And, in fact, this little story has less to do with dead chickens than with how they journey across Toronto in the after-life before landing between our knives and forks. Let me explain. Until very recently in Toronto, fresh cut-up chickens were placed on foam trays
A moving (and puzzling) story about dead Toronto chickens Read More »
There’s just something about paper! Thirteen years of data on what ends up in Ontario homes tells us that Canadians, or at least those who live in Ontario, cannot or do not want to shuck their paper habit, despite all those urgent exhortations to do so. The paper-less home ain’t happening. Well, not yet anyway.
Fewer newspapers but more boxes in the home Read More »
Please see below a summary of the EPR (Blue Box) fees for paper-based packaging in the five current programs across Canada. The fees for corrugated and boxboard range from $90 a tonne in Saskatchewan to $240 a tonne In British Columbia, reflecting both the varying costs to collect materials in different geographies but also the
EPR (Blue Box) Fee Backgrounder (for 2017) Read More »
Il est parfois intéressant de faire un retour sur le passé. Voici ma contribution à un livre publié récemment sur la fabrication du papier depuis un siècle au Canada. Lightweight, Recycled, Sustainable: the Story of Canada’s Packaging Grades The last 100 years of packaging in Canada have seen the replacement of heavy wooden crates with
L\’histoire des emballages de papier et de carton au Canada Read More »
Il ne fait aucun doute que certaines marchandises sont suremballées et qu’il y aurait moyen de réduire la quantité d’emballages de papier, de verre, de métal et de plastique qui se retrouvent dans les foyers des consommateurs. Mais même si l\’on continue à tout mettre sur le dos de l’emballage, ce n’est qu’un aspect de
C’est encore la faute de l’emballage (soupir) Read More »
Interesting to look back sometimes. Here is my contribution to a recent book on 100 years of papermaking in Canada. Lightweight, Recycled, Sustainable: the Story of Canada’s Packaging Grades The last 100 years of packaging in Canada have seen the replacement of heavy wooden crates with lighter corrugated boxes, and the rise of plastic and composite
The history of paper packaging in Canada Read More »
