Winter 2022 Newsletter

Volume 9, Issue 2

Éco Entreprises Québec is Preparing to Manage Cartons Under the New Curbside Recycling System. Here’s How.

On October 24, 2022, RECYQ-QUÉBEC, the government organization that oversees recycling in the province, officially appointed Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ) as the designated management organization (DMO) responsible for administering the modernized curbside recycling system on behalf of producers that market packaging materials, containers and printed matter. This appointment initiates the transition from the current system, funded by those producers but implemented by municipalities and material recovery facilities (MRFs), to the extended producer responsibility (EPR) system, whereby producers, through ÉEQ, will be fully responsible for all aspects of recovery and recycling of their materials. They will therefore be at the centre, along with ÉEQ, of a new recycling structure for Québec, with formal service agreements binding them to the other links in the recycling value chain: municipalities, MRFs, conditioners and recyclers. The new arrangement will come into effect in 2025.

As a type of recyclable container, cartons will be affected by this extensive transformation, and this naturally raises a number of questions. We recently spoke with ÉEQ to get a better sense of the impact that these changes will have on carton recycling and how the organization is preparing to handle these materials.

Currently, all curbside recycling programs in Québec accept cartons. We began by confirming that all cartons—including refrigerated (gable top) and shelf-stable (aseptic) cartons, whether used for drinks or food, and regardless of format—will continue to be accepted everywhere in Québec under the new system. And this will remain the case even when gable top and shelf-stable beverage cartons (including drink boxes) become part of the province’s expanded deposit-return program, beginning in 2025. When RECYC-QUÉBEC announced its appointment of ÉEQ as the DMO for curbside recycling, it also announced that the Association québécoise de récupération des contenants de boissons (AQRCB, the province’s beverage container recovery association) would be the designated management organization for the deposit-return system.

Collaboration between the curbside recycling and deposit-return systems

Québec’s modernization of recycling in the province also includes an expanded deposit-return system that will cover all 100 mL to 2 L “ready-to-drink” beverage containers. While splitting the recovery of food and drink cartons between the curbside recycling and deposit-return systems is also the norm in several other provinces, Québec will be the only one to require a formal collaborative agreement between the entities in charge of the two systems, with the goal of maximizing recovery and recycling of the materials collected by each. ÉEQ confirms that the two organizations will hold talks in the coming months with the goal of signing an agreement by the end of July 2023.

It is therefore too soon to tell whether post-consumer cartons collected by these two methods will be baled together or separately, and whether marketing efforts targeting recyclers will be jointly or independently undertaken. Since some consumers will inevitably continue to put returnable beverage cartons in their blue bins, the two organizations must also agree on how to process those containers. Will ÉEQ handle their recycling itself, or will it transfer them to the AQRCB? And how will the costs incurred by these steps be compensated? Given that distinct recovery and recycling objectives have been set for each organization by the authorities, they will also need to set up a mechanism for exchanging data to make sure their respective rates are correctly calculated. These questions and others will be answered in the coming agreement. ÉEQ assures us that the two organizations will work together in exemplary fashion to ensure effective management of cartons, as well as accurate reporting of performance results.

Stakeholder consultations for communication to citizens and sorting standards

Other questions, of course, remain unanswered at this very early stage in the transition, such as what sorting practices ÉEQ will be promoting for cartons. One of the most promising aspects of the overhaul of the recycling system is that ÉEQ will also be responsible for developing and rolling out all promotion and education initiatives for curbside recycling across the province. The messages to Quebecers on how to recover various materials will therefore be the same wherever they live, which should significantly reduce the confusion that can result when people see conflicting guidelines. With cartons, for example, will people be asked to keep them in their original shape as opposed to flattening them before binning them? Will they be told to screw the cap back on or to leave it off? These are the sorts of questions that will be studied this winter, notably by the various consultation committees that ÉEQ is currently setting up with recycling system stakeholders. Many things will factor into those discussions, including bin capacity, frequency of curbside pickup, and the needs of MRFs as well as those of recyclers.

The consultation committees will also set the requirements for sorting of cartons at the MRFs. Will there be a requirement for all of them to sort cartons into separate bales? We know that doing so maximizes the performance of the quality fibre found in cartons when they are reduced to pulp in paper mills, and also allows for recovery of polyal (a substance composed of the thin layers of polyethylene and aluminum found in cartons), which can then be used in manufacturing of other products. If so, what other materials will be accepted in these bales, and what will the acceptable level of contamination be? Currently, almost half of sorting centres in Québec sort cartons separately, achieving a purity level of around 95%, which is quite high. In considering these questions, which also apply to all other types of materials, ÉEQ plans to align with its counterparts in Ontario (which is also implementing curbside collection fully funded and administered by producers), as the two provinces share many of the same end markets.

Recycling that is now mostly local

Indeed, ÉEQ will henceforth be in charge of finding end markets for recovered materials; this part of the recycling value chain will no longer be the responsibility of the MRFs. Under the new regulations, the majority of recycling must be achieved locally; i.e., by recyclers in northeastern North America, between Ontario and New Jersey. With regard to cartons, ÉEQ can look to the Sustana Fiber mill in Lévis, near Québec City, which uses cartons and other white fibre-based materials to produce superior-quality recycled fibre. This fibre is then sold to manufacturers of printing paper, tissue and packaging, including food-grade packaging. The mill’s current recycling capacity is 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes of cartons per year, and it is aiming to increase that to 15,000 over the next few years. If need be, ÉEQ could also sign agreements with other recyclers in northeastern North America and work to promote development of end markets in the region.

The changes brought about by this overhaul of the curbside recycling system are both profound and promising. Having been active in recycling since its founding in 2005, collecting fees from producers and distributing them to municipalities to fund curbside collection, ÉEQ has a significantly expanded role going forward. Its team, which is itself growing to fulfil these new responsibilities, understandably has its work cut out for it between now and 2025. ÉEQ has developed a comprehensive plan comprising several critical milestones, which it is now working to implement. We are confident in its ability to accomplish the optimization of the recycling system that is now underway. And it can count on our full co-operation to ensure that recovery and recycling of cartons under the new system is met with great success.