Blue Box Recycling System
Encyclopedia
The Blue Box Recycling System (BBRS) is a waste management
system used by municipalities to collect source separated household waste
materials for the purpose of recycling.
The first full-scale community wide BBRS was implemented in 1983 by the waste management contractor for the City of Kitchener
, Total Recycling Systems Ltd., a subsidiary of Laidlaw Waste Systems. The system was a part of the waste management system in the City.
Today, many municipalities operate Blue Box programs that accept all forms of paper materials, most plastic packaging, glass containers, aluminum cans and steel cans. For example, the City of Greater Napanee accepts:
The municipality provides the Blue Boxes to residents in areas serviced by the recycling program. This usually includes all single-family home
s and townhouse units receiving garbage collection
. Tenants of apartment buildings typically do not use Blue Boxes but rather deposit their household recyclable materials in larger containers located in or near the building.
and in 1971, members published a report stressing the need for recycling. Also in 1971, the Canadian Federal Government first established a national Department of the Environment, known as Environment Canada
, with Environmental protection as one of its priorities. The Ontario government followed suit with a Ministry of the Environment in 1972.
Jack McGinns of Toronto helped form a community-based non-profit organization called "Is Five" Foundation in 1974. Named for a book of poetry by e.e. cummings, Is Five organized Canada’s first multi-material curbside pickup of recyclable material for 80,000 households of The Beaches
neighbourhood of east Toronto
. In 1977, Jack McGinnis and Derek Stephenson created a private consulting company, Resource Integration Systems (RIS) to advise governments in the field of recycling and waste management.
That same year, in response to the 1973 energy crisis, Rick Findlay was hired by Environment Canada’s Federal Facilities Program to develop and coordinate a resource conservation program primarily for federal government facilities in Ontario. The program was expected to improve environmental quality and reduce energy demand. The Federal Facilities Program sought advice on a recycling pilot program for Canadian Forces Base Borden and eventually made contact with RIS. RIS experimented with a vartiety of techniques to improve the performance recycling and they found that participation rates were significantly higher when residents could simply drop their recycling in a plastic box. Initially, the project at CFB Borden used milk crates borrowed from a local grocery store. Participation was likely encouraged by a standing order from the Base Commander to recycle.
Meanwhile, a student and a volunteer at a Kitchener
/Waterloo, Ontario
office of Pollution Probe, Eric Hellman organized "Garbage Fest 77" in Kitchener to raise awareness about the consequences of garbage production. McGinnis was invited to speak about his experiences with the CFB Borden program. Hellman also requested a representative from Superior Sanitation (later to be Laidlaw Waste Systems Ltd), the local garbage collection contractor, and an employee named Nyle Ludolph attended Garbage Fest. After meeting McGinnis at the festival, Ludolph became an enthusiastic recycler at his own home and helped increase Laidlaw’s presence in recycling. Nyle managed "Total Recycling Systems", a subsidiary of Superior Sanitation/Laidlaw.
In 1978, Jack McGinnis and Eric Hellman and others met in the basement of the Trinity United Church on Yonge Street in Toronto and created the Recycling Council of Ontario.
In 1981, after close cooperation with Nyle Ludolph, RIS submitted a proposal to Laidlaw to collect and recycle materials at the curbside for a pilot project in Kitchener, Ontario. RIS designed the program, and Total Recycling had the responsibility to handle all operations. The Kitchener project included 1,500 households and was tested with four different approaches to recycling:
Curbside pick-up without providing blue boxes to residents;
Curbside pick-up with blue boxes for residents;
Curbside pick-up with blue boxes, including knocking on doors to inform residents; and,
Composting with composters provided by Laidlaw, free of charge.
Basically, the blue box recycling system that was proposed to be included as an included “extra” to the regular waste management contract made the difference. Laidlaw was successful in getting the waste management contract for Kitchener, and the Blue Box had its launch as a commercial reality. RIS came up with the slogan “We Recycle” that was applied to every box that went out in Kitchener. Various reasons why the boxes were blue, as opposed to some other colour are bandied about in blue box mythology, but the fact is that RIS felt they looked best and were most visible, in blue. It was a colour that was also suitable in terms of withstanding damage from ultraviolet light.
The four recycling approaches were monitored by RIS for one year and the Blue Box was clearly the most effective. The “test project” continued to run however, and Laidlaw found that people who did not have the Blue Boxes were requesting them, and letters came in every day expressing their support for the program and for it to continue. The program went city-wide in 1983, with Laidlaw providing the extra investment in additional boxes and trucks and handling equipment even though it was not required by their waste management contract with the City. Participation rates ran at 85 percent and it was clear that this was a very successful program.
In 1984 the City-wide contract for Kitchener went out to public bid, as previously scheduled. City staff simply followed previous procedures – i.e., no specific requirement to offer recycling services was included in bid documents. Laidlaw chose to submit a bid that included continuation of the Blue Box service while their competitors, mainly large US-based firms, did not. One such competitor submitted a bid that was about $400,000 lower than the one from Laidlaw. The Council meeting where the decision was made was filled with local citizens, especially students, asking their City to support the Blue Box. The City did, voting to take the Blue Box bid, not the low bid.
In 1985, Laidlaw won the bid for recycling in the City of Mississauga and introduced the second commercial blue box program in Ontario in June 1986, the largest recycling effort in North America. Now, the Blue Box system and variations of it are in place in hundreds of cities around the world.
Waste management
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal,managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics...
system used by municipalities to collect source separated household waste
Municipal solid waste
Municipal solid waste , commonly known as trash or garbage , refuse or rubbish is a waste type consisting of everyday items we consume and discard. It predominantly includes food wastes, yard wastes, containers and product packaging, and other miscellaneous inorganic wastes from residential,...
materials for the purpose of recycling.
The first full-scale community wide BBRS was implemented in 1983 by the waste management contractor for the City of Kitchener
Kitchener, Ontario
The City of Kitchener is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census...
, Total Recycling Systems Ltd., a subsidiary of Laidlaw Waste Systems. The system was a part of the waste management system in the City.
Today, many municipalities operate Blue Box programs that accept all forms of paper materials, most plastic packaging, glass containers, aluminum cans and steel cans. For example, the City of Greater Napanee accepts:
- Glass bottlesGlass BottlesA glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. Glass bottles can vary in size considerably, but are most commonly found in sizes ranging between about 10ml and 5 liters....
and jars, including all glass containers which previously contained a food or beverage product. - Metal food and beverage cans, including all hard shell steel or aluminum containers which previously contained a food or beverage product.
- Aluminum foilAluminium foilAluminium foil is aluminium prepared in thin metal leaves, with a thickness less than , thinner gauges down to are also commonly used. In the USA, foils are commonly gauged in mils. Standard household foil is typically thick and heavy duty household foil is typically .The foil is pliable, and...
meaning food wrap, food packaging and kitchenware such as pie plates made from a thin sheet of aluminum. - Rigid shell plastic containers including Polyethylene TerephthalatePolyethylene terephthalatePolyethylene terephthalate , commonly abbreviated PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P, is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in synthetic fibers; beverage, food and other liquid containers; thermoforming applications; and engineering resins often in combination...
(PETE#I), High Density Polyethylene (HDPE #2), Low Density PolyethyleneLow density polyethyleneLow-density polyethylene is a thermoplastic made from petroleum. It was the first grade of polyethylene, produced in 1933 by Imperial Chemical Industries using a high pressure process via free radical polymerization. Its manufacture employs the same method today. LDPE is commonly recycled and has...
(LDPE #4), Polypropylene (PP #5) and Polystyrene (PS #6), which previously contained a non-hazardous consumer productConsumer productA consumer product is generally any tangible personal property for sale and that is used for personal, family, or household for non-business purposes. The determination whether a good is a consumer product requires a factual finding, on a case-by-case basis...
. - Rigid foam plastic containers.
- Newspapers, magazines, flyers and household papers.
- Old boxboard and old cardboard (non-waxed, flattened & bundled no larger than 30"x3O1'x8").
- Bundled plastic bagPlastic bagA plastic bag, polybag, or pouch is a type of packaging made of thin, flexible, plastic film, nonwoven fabric, or plastic textile. Plastic bags are used for containing and transporting goods such as foods, produce, powders, ice, magazines, comic books, chemicals and waste.Most plastic bags are...
s (LDPE). - Other material as designated by the Town from time to time.
The municipality provides the Blue Boxes to residents in areas serviced by the recycling program. This usually includes all single-family home
Single-family home
A single-family detached home, also called a single-detached dwelling or separate house is a free-standing residential building. It is defined in opposition to a multi-family dwelling.- Definitions :...
s and townhouse units receiving garbage collection
Waste collection
Waste collection is the component of waste management which results in the passage of a waste material from the source of production to either the point of treatment or final disposal...
. Tenants of apartment buildings typically do not use Blue Boxes but rather deposit their household recyclable materials in larger containers located in or near the building.
The History of the Blue Box
An organization called Pollution Probe was formed in 1969 by students and faculty at the University of TorontoUniversity of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and in 1971, members published a report stressing the need for recycling. Also in 1971, the Canadian Federal Government first established a national Department of the Environment, known as Environment Canada
Environment Canada
Environment Canada , legally incorporated as the Department of the Environment under the Department of the Environment Act Environment Canada (EC) (French: Environnement Canada), legally incorporated as the Department of the Environment under the Department of the Environment Act Environment...
, with Environmental protection as one of its priorities. The Ontario government followed suit with a Ministry of the Environment in 1972.
Jack McGinns of Toronto helped form a community-based non-profit organization called "Is Five" Foundation in 1974. Named for a book of poetry by e.e. cummings, Is Five organized Canada’s first multi-material curbside pickup of recyclable material for 80,000 households of The Beaches
The Beaches
The Beaches is a neighbourhood and popular tourist destination located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the east side of the "Old" City of Toronto. The original boundaries of the neighbourhood are from Fallingbrook Avenue on the east to Kingston Road on the north, to Woodbine Avenue...
neighbourhood of east Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. In 1977, Jack McGinnis and Derek Stephenson created a private consulting company, Resource Integration Systems (RIS) to advise governments in the field of recycling and waste management.
That same year, in response to the 1973 energy crisis, Rick Findlay was hired by Environment Canada’s Federal Facilities Program to develop and coordinate a resource conservation program primarily for federal government facilities in Ontario. The program was expected to improve environmental quality and reduce energy demand. The Federal Facilities Program sought advice on a recycling pilot program for Canadian Forces Base Borden and eventually made contact with RIS. RIS experimented with a vartiety of techniques to improve the performance recycling and they found that participation rates were significantly higher when residents could simply drop their recycling in a plastic box. Initially, the project at CFB Borden used milk crates borrowed from a local grocery store. Participation was likely encouraged by a standing order from the Base Commander to recycle.
Meanwhile, a student and a volunteer at a Kitchener
Kitchener, Ontario
The City of Kitchener is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census...
/Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....
office of Pollution Probe, Eric Hellman organized "Garbage Fest 77" in Kitchener to raise awareness about the consequences of garbage production. McGinnis was invited to speak about his experiences with the CFB Borden program. Hellman also requested a representative from Superior Sanitation (later to be Laidlaw Waste Systems Ltd), the local garbage collection contractor, and an employee named Nyle Ludolph attended Garbage Fest. After meeting McGinnis at the festival, Ludolph became an enthusiastic recycler at his own home and helped increase Laidlaw’s presence in recycling. Nyle managed "Total Recycling Systems", a subsidiary of Superior Sanitation/Laidlaw.
In 1978, Jack McGinnis and Eric Hellman and others met in the basement of the Trinity United Church on Yonge Street in Toronto and created the Recycling Council of Ontario.
In 1981, after close cooperation with Nyle Ludolph, RIS submitted a proposal to Laidlaw to collect and recycle materials at the curbside for a pilot project in Kitchener, Ontario. RIS designed the program, and Total Recycling had the responsibility to handle all operations. The Kitchener project included 1,500 households and was tested with four different approaches to recycling:
Curbside pick-up without providing blue boxes to residents;
Curbside pick-up with blue boxes for residents;
Curbside pick-up with blue boxes, including knocking on doors to inform residents; and,
Composting with composters provided by Laidlaw, free of charge.
Basically, the blue box recycling system that was proposed to be included as an included “extra” to the regular waste management contract made the difference. Laidlaw was successful in getting the waste management contract for Kitchener, and the Blue Box had its launch as a commercial reality. RIS came up with the slogan “We Recycle” that was applied to every box that went out in Kitchener. Various reasons why the boxes were blue, as opposed to some other colour are bandied about in blue box mythology, but the fact is that RIS felt they looked best and were most visible, in blue. It was a colour that was also suitable in terms of withstanding damage from ultraviolet light.
The four recycling approaches were monitored by RIS for one year and the Blue Box was clearly the most effective. The “test project” continued to run however, and Laidlaw found that people who did not have the Blue Boxes were requesting them, and letters came in every day expressing their support for the program and for it to continue. The program went city-wide in 1983, with Laidlaw providing the extra investment in additional boxes and trucks and handling equipment even though it was not required by their waste management contract with the City. Participation rates ran at 85 percent and it was clear that this was a very successful program.
In 1984 the City-wide contract for Kitchener went out to public bid, as previously scheduled. City staff simply followed previous procedures – i.e., no specific requirement to offer recycling services was included in bid documents. Laidlaw chose to submit a bid that included continuation of the Blue Box service while their competitors, mainly large US-based firms, did not. One such competitor submitted a bid that was about $400,000 lower than the one from Laidlaw. The Council meeting where the decision was made was filled with local citizens, especially students, asking their City to support the Blue Box. The City did, voting to take the Blue Box bid, not the low bid.
In 1985, Laidlaw won the bid for recycling in the City of Mississauga and introduced the second commercial blue box program in Ontario in June 1986, the largest recycling effort in North America. Now, the Blue Box system and variations of it are in place in hundreds of cities around the world.