Winter 2022 Newsletter

Volume 9, Issue 2

MRF Profiles: Regions of Waterloo and Peel, City of Winnipeg

As a continuation of Carton Council of Canada’s visits to various Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) in Ontario and across the country, Managing Director, Isabelle Faucher, recently had the opportunity to visit MRFs servicing the Regions of Waterloo and Peel, and the City of Winnipeg.

Region of Waterloo Nyle Ludolph Material Recycling Centre

Isabelle Faucher with Paul Skinner in front of carton bales.

On September 19, 2022, Isabelle met with Paul Skinner, Operations Supervisor at GFL Environmental Inc. and spoke with Paul Rabb, Operations Supervisor at the Region of Waterloo.

Many people don’t know that the Waterloo facility is the home of the first blue box system in the world; or that the United Nations recognized Ontario’s blue box initiative with an environmental award of merit in 1989. Signs on the observation deck at the facility offer a full history of this important recycling milestone to school groups and other visitors.

Today, the Waterloo MRF handles containers while fibres are sent to Niagara Recycling for processing and baling. In Waterloo, cartons are hand sorted before the eddy current. Polycoat currently comprises 3 percent of the facility’s outbound production.

Signs on the observation deck at the Waterloo facility offer a full history of Ontario’s Blue Box.

GFL Winnipeg Material Recovery Facility

Material from tip floor being loaded onto conveyor

On September 27, 2022, Isabelle visited the GFL MRF located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a relatively new facility that began operating in 2019. Here, she met with Steven Heard, Operations Manager at GFL Environmental Inc. GFL owns the recycling facility and the company is currently three years into a 10-year contract with the City of Winnipeg. In 2020, the GFL Winnipeg MRF was awarded the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) Recycling Facility of the Year.

Originally, the Winnipeg MRF only accepted material from the city itself but has since started adding material from other municipalities, some from as far as 10 hours away. Seventy-five percent of the material processed at the facility is residential and cartons make up 2 per cent of inbound materials.

Currently, the Winnipeg facility processes 68,000 tonnes per year (51,000 TPY from Winnipeg) but the facility has capacity for 100,000 TPY. They produce seven commodities and market about 680 tonnes of polycoat annually.

Cartons are ejected optically through a dual-ejection optical sorter (along with mixed rigid plastics). A quality control sorter removes any contaminants. In order to maximize capture rates, there is also a rework system in place. If a carton or any other recyclable does not get captured the first time around, it gets recirculated while a robot works to remove contaminants. Together, these processes help reduce the residue rate and minimize the loss of valuable materials.

GFL handles the marketing of the material generated at the facility on behalf of the City of Winnipeg and pays them revenues based on minimum capture rates.

At the moment, the facility operates one 9-hour shift but the GFL team is working towards adding another shift so can they can begin to accept material from Alberta.

Region of Peel Material Recovery Facility

From left to right: David Saint Remy, Guillermo Pugliese, Erin Pollock, Shawn Sinclair

Finally, on Oct. 30th, 2022, Isabelle and Guillermo Pugliese, Global Collections Director for Tetra Pak, visited the Material Recovery Facility for the Region of Peel. There, they met with Erin Pollock, Team Lead, Waste Processing, and Shawn Sinclair, Supervisor, Waste Processing – both from the Region of Peel – as well as David Saint Remy, Operations Manager at GFL Environmental Inc.

The Peel MRF underwent significant upgrades since 2020 focused on modernizing the facility and introducing significant opportunity for additional recovery.

The facility’s equipment features 12 optical sorters including 8 for fibre capture, clean up and recovery, 3 for containers including carton capture, as well as 1 for last chance recovery which recirculates missed commodities.

Peel also has a virtual 360 MRF tour available online.

GFL markets all materials for Peel and a revenue-sharing agreement is in place with the Region.