MRF Profiles: York Region, Greater Sudbury, Southeast Eco360 (Moncton)

CCC’s Managing Director, Isabelle Faucher, has continued her visits to Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) across the country, learning about the work they do and their approach to carton recycling. Three of these facilities are profiled below: York Region (Ontario), Great Sudbury (Ontario), and Southeast Eco360 (New Brunswick).

York Region

Carton Council Managing Director Isabelle Faucher with carton bales during visit to York Region MRF.

As Isabelle discovered during her tour of the York Region MRF in Ontario, sorting food and beverage cartons is a long-standing practice at the facility operated under contract by Miller Waste Systems Inc. Her host, Kai Fu, P.Eng., explained that cartons at the facility are hand sorted, with one full-time sorter assigned specifically to carton sorting. Others on the fiber line make sure that strays are redirected to the proper conveyor.

Kai also shared that contamination, mainly from batteries, is a key issue for the team at the moment, as they pose a health and safety hazard. The Region has several promotion and education programs to guide its residents to recycle batteries properly, with the goal of stopping batteries from getting into the waste stream right from the source.

The Region is also looking ahead to the end of 2025, when its Blue Box program will transition to full producer responsibility.

Greater Sudbury Region

Hand sorting of cartons being done on the Greater Sudbury Region MRF’s container line.

Since February 2023, the Greater Sudbury Region MRF has been operated under contract to HGC Management. Isabelle had the opportunity to meet with Herb Lambacher, owner and principal, HGC Management and Paul Bedard, plant supervisor.

Like the York Region MRF, cartons in Sudbury are hand-picked from the container line, with one full-time equivalent sorter assigned to this task. The operation produces about 120 tonnes per year of cartons. HGC markets the material on behalf of the Region.

The Sudbury operation is one of the only MRFs of size north of Toronto, and handles tonnages from much of Northern Ontario. Total throughput for the facility is 15,000 TPY including Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) sources; 12,000 TPY is residential only.

Moncton

In July, Isabelle also visited the publicly owned MRF serving the southeast region of New Brunswick (Region 7), which includes Moncton and neighbouring communities. She met with Sebastian Hultberg, Director of Solid Waste Services, Eco360, and Pierre Ouellette, Diversion Coordinator.

This photo of the Eco360 gardens illustrates the difference in the performance of the crops with and without the compost produced by the site’s composting facility.

Eco360 has been sorting cartons in a positive manner for several years. They are sorted manually on the container line and two sorters are assigned to the task.

The facility is the largest MRF in the province, processing between 33 and 40% of all recyclable materials in the province. This amounts to an estimated 25,000 tonnes of material per year. In 2022, they marketed 165 MT of polycoat, consisting mostly of milk and non-beverage cartons, since other cartons are in scope of the province’s beverage container deposit return system.

The Eco360 MRF is located on an integrated residual materials management site, which includes a sanitary landfill with methane capture which is used to produce electricity as well as a composting site.