This article outlines the position and trends of recycling in Canada. Since the 1980s, most mid to large municipalities in most provinces have recycling programs.
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In Alberta, the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (also known as "Alberta Recycling") is an arms-length body set up by the Government of Alberta under the Ministry of the Environment to coordinate recycling in the province. It administers the surcharge that has been added to the price of electronics, paint, and tires sold in the province since 2005 to pay for the recycling of those products in Alberta, and it helps to administer the province's household hazardous wastes disposal program.[1]
A separate management authority, the Beverage Container Management Board (BCMC), is responsible for recycling of beverage containers.[2] Beverage container recycling regulations were first introduced province-wide in 1972, but the BCMC was created in 1997 to create a provincial oversight body for the industry. The BCMA oversees two non-profit corporations which process the materials, the Alberta Beer Container Corporation (ABCC) for beer bottles (which reuses rather than recycles the bottles) and the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation (ABCRC) for all other beverage containers. Containers are actually collected at privately owned, for-profit bottle depots. As of 2011[update] there are over 200 such bottle depots in Alberta, which are members of the Alberta Bottle Depot Association.[3]
The Recycling Council of Alberta is a registered charity which has promoted recycling in Alberta since 1987.[4] Specific industry groups lobby for their niche within the recycling sector, such as the Alberta Plastics Recycling Association.[5]
Curbside recycling of newsprint, cardboard, plastic packaging, and other non-food household wastes is the responsibility of the individual municipalities of Alberta. Most of Alberta's most populous municipalities have blue box, blue bag, or blue bin recycling container programs. The two largest municipalities, however, adopted waste-diverting policies at a very different pace. Edmonton began a pilot project in curbside recycling for single-family houses in 1986 and adopted it city-wide in 1988, expanding over the years to include more items (Christmas trees in 1990, and construction waste in 2008), and higher levels of processing including large-scale composting and capturing methane to produce energy. In addition, the scope of collection has expanded to include multifamily buildings in 2001 and businesses in 2010. It is expected that when the waste-to-biofuel plant is completed in 2012, Edmonton will divert 90% of its waste from landfills.[6]
By contrast Calgary conducted a pilot project on curbside recycling in 1991 and then abandoned curbside collection for a drop-off system until a second pilot program in 2004,[7][8] and currently collects recyclates only at private houses, with no plans to introduce collection at condo and apartment buildings before 2015.[9]
The curbside collection systems for recyclates vary across Canada:
Municipalities and provinces with recycling programs:
The different types of recyclable materials collected include:
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