Paper Recycling

Beyond the Headlines: Context on Ontario’s Proposed Blue Box Changes

The Ontario government recently proposed amendments to the province’s Blue Box Regulation, triggering swift reactions from stakeholders. As the environmental voice of Canada’s paper packaging industry, the Paper and Paperboard Packaging Environmental Council (PPEC) believes it’s important to move beyond reactionary narratives and look at the facts. Instead of pointing fingers or pitting stakeholders against […]

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New StatsCan Data Shows Paper Fibres Most Diverted Material

Statistics Canada recently released the results of its Waste Management Survey[1], which includes national waste diversion data for 2023. In this blog, PPEC breaks down the numbers with a focus on paper fibre diversion, discusses the latest plastic figures in the context of recent federal election platforms, and highlights the importance of recycling data. 2023

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New StatsCan Data Shows Paper Represents Majority of Diverted Materials

Statistics Canada released the results of its biennial Waste Management Survey1, containing waste diversion data for 2022. PPEC’s latest blog breaks down the stats and discusses the importance of recycling data. The new data shows that Canadian households and businesses diverted 9,898,882 tonnes of waste in 2022, and of the total amount diverted, 3,571,384 tonnes

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Pitting Packaging Materials Against Each Other Misses the Bigger Picture

Recent media articles on the potential of paper packaging to replace some of the single-use plastic items being banned in Canada, such as shopping bags and take-out food containers, miss the bigger picture of waste management and consumption in Canada. Some articles have shared concerns raised by some environmentalists about shifting from plastic to paper packaging

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Paper-based Packaging Leads the Way for Ontario’s Household Blue Box Program

Paper-based packaging continues to be a success story in Ontario\’s household Blue Box program, as measured by marketed tonnage, based on new data released by the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA), the regulator mandated by the Government of Ontario to enforce the province’s circular economy laws. RPRA’s new Datacall Report summarizes information generated by the 246 programs participating

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Ontario Blue Box recovery rate slips, but paper steady

The reported recovery rate of Ontario’s residential Blue Box system has fallen to its lowest level since 2005. The draft recovery rates, to be finalised by Stewardship Ontario in December, show a 2016 recovery rate of 62.4%, down 2% on the previous year. This will make the recent “request” by Ontario’s minister of environment and

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China doesn’t want the world’s garbage any more

And who can blame them? For years, the world has been shipping all sorts of waste to China for it to be sorted, made into new products, and shipped back to us. Low labour rates and lax environmental enforcement have benefitted all parties to this commercial deal (even perhaps the Chinese workers, a job being

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Paper recycling and organics collection represent almost 70% of Canada’s waste diversion efforts

Paper recycling continues to dominate Canada’s waste diversion efforts, representing almost 40% of total material diversion in 2014, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. Organics followed at 30 per cent. The next largest categories, on a weight basis, were metals and construction, renovation, and demolition materials. The biggest change in tonnage terms since

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Paper, paper, everywhere, and not a scrap to waste

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

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