The Town of Hawkesbury will now take charge of the shared household hazardous waste collection program in the area.

Council approved a recommendation from administration during its September 9 session to accept a change in the operation of the inter-municipal recycling and household hazardous waste agreement. The agreement provides a shared recycling program between Hawkesbury and the townships of East Hawkesbury and Champlain.

The three municipalities have had a shared recycling program since 2007, overseen by the Joint Recycling Committee (JRC). In 2023 the provincial government revamped Ontario’s community recycling programs, making all companies responsible for creating products like paper, tin cans, glass bottles, styrofoam, cardboard, plastic and other materials responsible for recycling them.

This resulted in elimination of the community Blue Box programs as municipalities contracted with provincial government-approved recycling collection companies for dealing with recyclables from residential neighbourhoods. Businesses were forced to make their own arrangements with companies for recyclables collections.

The elimination of the Blue Box program left the JRC with just the annual household hazardous waste collection program to administer for Hawkesbury, East Hawkesbury, and Champlain Township. Under the current agreement Champlain Township has been responsible for administering the household hazardous waste collection. That includes organizing the annual household hazardous waste collection day event at the Hawkesbury water treatment plant site, confirming funding support for the event, and other logistics.

Starting next year, Hawkesbury will take charge of the household hazardous waste collection project with administration done through its public works department. Any funds left in the JRC operations budget after the 2024 collection expenses are paid will be shared among the three municipalities.