What We Do

Think inside the box – the blue box

If you’re like many Ontarians, recycling has become so much a part of what you do everyday that it’s hard to remember a time before the blue box.
 
What started as a small pilot project in Kitchener, Ontario in 1981 has become a fixture in the province’s households and an international success story – and with good reason. 
 
Today, more than 95% of Ontarians have access to curbside recycling – and in 2008 alone, more than 900 kilotonnes of waste was diverted from landfills. That’s nine times the total weight of the CN Tower, enough to fill more than 110,000 transport trucks, or approximately 1 tonne for every square kilometer of land in the province.
 
What’s in store

Since the Blue Box Program officially launched in 2004, we’ve increased the amount of waste diverted from landfill and met – or exceeded – every target set by Waste Diversion Ontario, the agency established by government to develop, implement and operate a variety of waste diversion programs. 
 
In 2010, with a new Blue Box Program Plan in place, we’ve been charged with recycling 70% of our waste by the end of 2011. And that’s a tall order, particularly given current trends. These include the reduction in paper consumption and the shift from easier- and cheaper-to-recycle packaging materials, like PET bottles, glass and cardboard, to those that are hard-to-recycle or for which there aren’t currently established markets.
 
Fortunately, we can all do our part to increase the recycling rate. Learn more about how you can help.