Waste Management of Canada Corporation (WM Canada) announced the commencement of construction of a state-of-the-art recycling facilities in Roblin.
Members of Greater Napanee council, town staff and WM Canada were recently on site to break ground at 2332 County Rd 41, a site formerly owned by Napanee Waste Solutions. It’s slated for completion in 2025.
“The brand new facility will process recyclables to support the Ontario Blue Box Regulation,” said Jessica Kropf, senior communications manage for WM. “The facility will use sorting technologies where conveyors and optical sorters communicate with each other, and with technicians, to strive to improve material quality.”
The number of jobs needed to staff the facility is still yet to be determined, though Kropf said it will be ‘significant.’
Along with a facility in Greater Napanee, a second facility is also under construction in Waterloo.
These highly automated facilities are expected to process approximately 30 per cent of Ontario’s total “Blue Box” volume, through contracts with Circular Materials who is the common collection system administrator that is responsible for operating the new recycling system for blue box materials in Ontario and a national not-for-profit producer responsibility organization (PRO) that supports producers in meeting their obligations under extended producer responsibility.
The Ontario Blue Box Regulation, under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016, makes producers of packaging, paper and packaging-like products accountable for the recycling and end-of-life management of these materials, in an effort to help advance sustainable practices and reduce environmental impact throughout the province. On July 1, 2023, Ontario’s transition to this new extended producer responsibility framework commenced, with full implementation beginning January 1, 2026.
“As North America’s largest recycler, expanding our footprint in Ontario is a significant opportunity that directly aligns with WM’s sustainability strategy,” said Tracy Black, WM Canada president.
WM Canada’s investments in new and upgraded recycling facilities are intended to increase overall recycling capacity in this area, expand the list of acceptable recyclable material that WM Canada manages.
This project is part of WM’s enterprise-wide plans to invest over $1 billion USD in new and upgraded recycling facilities across North America from 2022 to 2026, which investments are expected to add over 2.5 million tons of incremental annual processing capacity by the end of 2026. With the demand for recycled content products anticipated to rise, these planned investments seek to enable WM to increase its ability to manage recycled materials, and potentially enhance access to recycling for its customers.