Blue Box

Recycling has become so much a part of what we 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. (Download the History of Blue Box Recycling.)

Today, more than 95 per cent of Ontarians have access to curbside recycling – and in 2010 alone, more than 900,000 tonnes of waste was diverted from landfills. That’s nearly seven times the total weight of the CN Tower.

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.

The Blue Box Program continued to exceed recycling targets in 2010. A great achievement 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 harder-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.