Businesses to arrange own recycling pick up

Roger Varley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Business owners in North Durham have been advised by the North Durham Chamber of Commerce that, beginning next year, they must arrange their own recycling pickups.

The advisory, posted on Facebook, said business owners will no longer be able to use the regular blue box program. Instead, they must either hire a private recycling company or use a municipal service if one is available. The blue box service will only collect recycling from homes, not businesses or institutions.

If businesses bring their recycling to one of the Durham Region’s waste management facilities, the Region will handle the recycling from there. The notice said Durham Region is looking at alternative options but in the meantime, businesses will have to sort out their own recycling solutions for 2026 and beyond.

Mayor Dave Barton said the move "might work for big retailers or industrial areas but it’s a real challenge" for local retailers and the BIA. He noted that industries that produce recyclable products have taken over responsibility for collecting them, but while it works for residential pickup, they are not required to collect recyclable material from businesses.

Barton said the region has tried to step in by paying to include BIA businesses on the regular routes, but Circular Materials — the group now responsible for recycling — has refused.

"We thought we had a solution and were heading in the right direction, but about a month ago the negotiations went sideways and the service was pulled back," he said.

Barton admitted that "it is unfortunately more sustainable to process BIA business waste at our Energy-from-Waste facility than it is to send separate trucks into every downtown to collect small quantities of recycling."

He said regional council is attempting to find a workable solution that supports small businesses “and maintains a strong environmental focus.”

Barton did point out one apparent flaw in the decision to cut recycling pickup for businesses.

"If you live above a business, household recycling must still be collected and, in practical terms, there’s no realistic way to distinguish household recycling from business recycling in mixed-use downtown locations," he said. "This is not a situation we asked for and we’re advocating strongly for a solution that works for our small businesses."