Beginning May 1, 2022, Thunder Bay’s municipal recycling program will include the collection of plastic containers coded No. 3 through No. 7.

The city recently entered into a new service provider contract with GFL Environmental Inc. for collection, processing, and marketing of recyclable material for its municipal program in July of 2021.

Under this agreement there was an expansion which included plastic containers with codes No. 1 and No. 2.

Current River Councillor Andrew Foulds heavily supported expanding the recycling program, but stressed this move was a long time coming.

“We started talking about threes and sevens way back when we paid Stantec to do our waste management plan,” says Foulds. “Back then they were recommending this expansion in 2014 in their phase one of implementation of waste diversion. I think it’s fair to say I’m frustrated that it has taken this long, and I’m actually sure that citizens are also frustrated that they haven’t been able to do this recycling as well. If you take a look historically at our citizens survey, recycling tops those issues that citizens think are important and want more of.”

During the discussion at council it was considered how the city can teach the public how to follow this new recycling expansion.

Manager of Solid Waste and Recycling Jason Sherband says it will look similar to past programs.

“This gives us time to work on a promotion and education campaign and make any operational changes that we need to,” explains Sherband. “Could there be some confusion? Yes, be we’re hoping that the people understand this is a May 1 implementation, similar to what we did last year to be honest. Council approved the expansion of all the ones and twos in March, we didn’t implement until July 1 so something similar along those lines.”

Thunder Bay’s current landfill has a lifespan of approximately 21 more years, with this move helping deter waste from the site.

The current provincial Blue Box (blue bag) program funds approximately 50 per cent of municipal costs based on program performance and best practices.

It is estimated that this expansion would cost $134,000 a year.

A 2016 study found that 32 per cent of plastic packaging ends up in oceans every year.