Part of Recycle Action’s local employment program becomes a victim of the provincial government’s new plan for blue box recycling in Ontario.
Recycle Action is part of Groupe Convex Prescott-Russell, a Hawkesbury-based non-profit company, that focuses on skills development and employment programs to help people with disabilities to find work and/or gain practical work experience that will aid them with future employment. The company’s recycling operation has provided work and work skills experience for many people over the years while providing several municipalities in the Prescott-Russell region with a blue box collection program for recyclable materials like newsprint, bottle glass, cardboard, tin cans, and other items.
Recycle Action announced through a press release to media that it will no longer operate the blue bin collection program for recyclables in the region because the provincial government’s new producer-responsible program for dealing with all recyclable materials in Ontario takes effect this summer. Municipalities now must contract with the companies that the provincial government has now approved through the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA) for managing the new producer-responsible blue bin collection setup.
« It’s very disappointing to be put out of business like this after so much effort, » stated Robert Lessard, Recycle Action operations director. « We provided good local service. We are now left in a position where we must roll up our sleeves and reinvent ourselves to continue to offer employment to our staff. »
Recycle Action will continue to serve its commercial clients but it will longer operate its residential blue bin collection program for towns, villages, and rural areas in Prescott-Russell. Residents can go to the Recycle Action sorting facility on Spence Street in Hawkesbury and drop off cardboard, clean styrofoam, and electronic waste items like old digital cameras, computer monitors and such for recycling. The company will now charge a drop-off fee for these items.
