Minor changes to curbside recycling coming Jan. 1 for St. Marys businesses

By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

St. Marys businesses, industries and institutions (ICI) that rely on Bluewater Recycling Association’s (BRA) curbside recycling pickup will see some minor changes as the province’s producer-responsibility residential recycling program comes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

ICI recyclers will need to pay close attention to the BRA’s pickup schedule for the new year as the organization prepares to initiate separate pickup days for residential and ICI recycling. The reason for that, explained Town of St. Marys manager of environmental services Dave Blake, has to do with a number of new materials that will be accepted for residential pickup, but not for ICI pickup.

“A couple years ago, the province brought in new regulations for blue-box recycling across the province. It was a phased-in approach, so a lot of the phasing in occurred between 2023 and 2025, with full transition happening Jan. 1, 2026. So that’s why the changes are happening for ICI properties as of Jan. 1 as it’s fully transitioned over to producer responsibility at that point,” Blake said, referencing the province’s updated Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, which puts funding and oversight of residential recycling in the hands of new producer responsibility organizations (PROs).

“ … Basically, it standardizes the blue-box recycling program across the province, so there’s some new materials that are going to be added to the residential curbside program as of Jan. 1 such as tinfoil, aluminum pans or trays, some takeout Styrofoam packaging, things like that, and that’s the same whether you’re in St. Marys, Toronto, Parry Sound, right across the province – it’s all standardized.”

Since the PROs are only responsible for residential recycling and the materials that can be recycled by ICI properties will remain as they are, residential and ICI recycling must be collected separately and on different days.

Recently, Blake said representatives from the BRA have been visiting affected ICI properties throughout the town – many of which are businesses located in the downtown core – informing them of the changes to the program and swapping out their blue recycling-bin lids for red ones to help recycling collectors differentiate between residential and ICI recycling on pickup days.

While residential pickup days will remain the same, ICI pickup will instead take place on Thursdays on a biweekly schedule. Exact pickup dates for ICI properties are being distributed by the BRA through its 2026 recycling schedule, online at www.bra.org/my-services/st-marys-town/ and through the new Bluewater Recycling app, which offers personalized reminders for recycling collection and special collection days among other features.

While the town is footing the bill for ICI recycling collection in 2026 as the changes are implemented by BRA, Blake said the recycling association will have more information on the exact costs of this modified program prior to the beginning of council’s budget deliberations for 2027. At that time, he said council will need to decide whether the town will continue paying for ICI recycling or if it will move to a cost-recovery model.

For now, Blake is encouraging those affected by the changes to refer to their 2026 recycling schedules, ensure their recycling is at the curb by 7 a.m. on collection day and to be patient as these changes are implemented at the beginning of the new year.