Thunder Bay business wants city to expand recycling collection

The manager of a small business in Thunder Bay, Ont., says she wants to see the city do more for merchants who recycle.

The city is mandated to offer curbside recycling pickup for residents, but not for other sectors like small businesses.

Mirabai Alexander of Wilderness Supply thinks that should change. She was surprised one evening when she saw her store's garbage being collected, she said.

"We had our cardboard all separated, which we'd been doing for quite a while, and we stayed late one day, and we noticed that the garbage pickup truck was just taking it all," she said.

"We were like 'what?' So we've been separating cardboard for all this time, not knowing."

Alexander, who completed her education in environmental and resource studies, said her business goes through a lot of cardboard, estimating it produces four to five times more than an average household.

"In the spring and summer certainly, we'd be getting much, much more .... just because of our kayak business, obviously a lot of our waste would come from boat shipments and kayak accessory products."

Alexander now hires a waste management company to collect her recyclables, but it's a service she wants to see the city provide, she said.

"I think that a good first step would be to be getting small businesses free pickup that are already on existing routes," she said.

Part of Thunder Bay's long-term goals

How best to expand curbside recycling pickup is something that many municipalities across Canada are grappling with, said Jason Sherband, manager of the city's solid waste and recycling services.

Cost is a factor, he said, but it's one of many considerations.

"Everything comes down to cost, obviously. There's a cost to providing service ....so that's one part of it," he said.

"That's not the only part, you know. You have to look at logistics and how all that makes sense as well."

Materials need to be separated and weighed differently on the residential and non-residential sides, Sherband said, adding that the two sectors also have different reporting requirements.

"It's not as easy as it seems, in terms of just going and picking that stuff up."

Despite that, expanding Thunder Bay's capability to deal with recyclables in the commercial sector is something that's in the city's long term plans.

"It's not that we haven't put any thought into it initially," he said. "We didn't go and develop a long-term plan and not include that."

Alexander said she wants to see the process sped up. "It makes sense for the city to help out places that are going to be one of the larger sources of recyclable materials," she said.