Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority Administrative Report

January 24, 2020

To:                  The Chair and Board of the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority

From:              Catharine Copot-Nepszy, Manager of Waste Diversion

Meeting Date:   Tuesday, February 04, 2020

Subject:  “No Plastic Bags…Period!” Recycling Campaign – Effective June 1, 2020

Purpose

To inform the EWSWA Board members of the upcoming June 1, 2020 “No Plastic Bags…Period!” recycling initiative that is supported through co-partners: Environmental Services Department of the City of Windsor and EWSWA’s Waste Diversion Department, as well as other contractors and municipalities.

Background

In 2018, as a result of the oversaturation of the domestic recycling market, buyers started imposing higher quality demands on municipalities like EWSWA who sell their finished recyclable goods to them, it forced the EWSWA to further monitor issues that were impeding us to consistently meet these newly enforced quality standards. Through many audits of incoming materials into both the Fibre and Container Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), the Authority identified a few items as major contributors of contamination. After thorough review of the data, it was determined that incoming plastic bags were not only the major source of contamination, but, it also posed excess burden on the processing of recyclables (e.g., repairs, maintenance, downtime, sorting inefficiencies) in both MRFs. Plastic bags were found in many forms: loose and as a receptacle that often has more than clean recyclables (e.g., garbage) contained. Attached to this report is an image of the typical incoming material found in the Container MRF that highlights this issue.

As EWSWA manages the contracts for the processing of all recycling materials collected at curbside in Essex-Windsor and the curbside collection in Essex County, and the City of Windsor manages the contract for their own curbside collection of recycling, Windsor collaborates often with EWSWA to discuss recycling issues. As a result, through the discussion around these audits mentioned in the previous paragraph, market conditions, issues at the curbside, and processing issues, City of Windsor and EWSWA Administration unanimously agreed that a campaign that bans plastic bags in curbside recycling collection must be undertaken.