Provincial Studies, National Survey Help Illustrate Recycling Behaviour and Perceptions Across the Country

Understanding consumer behaviours is an important part of developing effective recycling education and strategies. As a result, CCC has been keen to partner with a variety of organizations, supporting efforts that delve more deeply into how cartons are disposed of and measure the success of various recycling efforts.

In the three instances below, data helps illustrate progress being made with respect to the recycling of cartons—and opportunities to continue to improve performance.

Continuous Improvement Fund (CIF), Ontario Study

CIF has been providing funding for province-wide waste composition studies and program auditing since 2012. This detailed analysis of materials found in particular waste streams targets a different set of programs every year. These programs include a mix of large, medium, and small urban and rural single-family curbside programs, as well as depot programs and multi-family buildings. CCC recently partnered with CIF to augment the sort categories in its 2022-23 study in order to obtain carton-specific information. Overall, the carton capture rate decreased slightly from 72% in 2020-21 to 70.8% in 2022-23. It is, however, important to note that for the 2022-23 study one of the participating programs did not accept cartons for recycling, which was not the case in 2020-21; this likely contributed to the decrease.

CCC recently partnered with Ontario’s Continuous Improvement Fund (CIF) to augment the sort categories in its 2022-23 waste composition study in order to obtain carton-specific information.

More specifically, the capture rate for gable top containers remained almost steady at 76.1% in 2022-23 compared to 76.6% in 2020-21. In contrast, aseptic cartons saw a decrease in collection rates in 2022-23, reporting 62.4% versus 64.1% in 2020-21. These insights highlight the continued need to educate consumers on the recyclability of both carton types. 

The full report is available on the CIF website.

Divert NS, Nova Scotia Study

In 2023, Divert NS conducted a Nova Scotia-wide waste disposal study, sponsored in part by Carton Council of Canada. Sampling was conducted at each of the seven landfills in the province as well as at targeted transfer stations.

Overall, there is good news for cartons. Key takeaways of this study are as follows:

• Residential (RES) and industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) disposal of dairy and dairy substitute categories decreased substantially from 2017 (the last time a similar study was undertaken) to 2023, both in terms of tonnes disposed (t) and in relative proportion of all tonnage disposed (%). For comparison, in 2017, dairy containers made up 2,516 t (0.90%) and dairy substitute containers weighed in at 364 t (0.13%) while in 2023 dairy accounted for 1,291 t (0.40%) and dairy substitute was 212 t (0.07%). It is important to note, however, that the dairy category also includes non-carton containers, mainly HDPE.
• RES and ICI disposal of deposit beverage containers increased slightly in 2023: 4,512 t (or 1.39% of total tonnage) in 2023 versus 3,828 t (or 1.35%) in 2017. This increase is driven by an increase of deposit container disposal in the residential sector. Of the 1.39% of deposit beverage containers disposed in 2023, gable top cartons accounted for only 0.01% and aseptic cartons, 0.1%.
• The number of deposit aseptic cartons disposed in both the RES and ICI sectors decreased significantly in 2023 versus 2017 (900 to 684) while the number of deposit gable top cartons increased slightly (from 36 to 52).

The full report is available on Divert NS’s website.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) Survey

In 2023, to better understand the recycling of beverage containers when away from home, ECCC conducted a national, online survey of 2,013 Canadians, 18 years and older. While much of the data focused on plastic bottles, the survey also explored whether the type of beverage container to be disposed of influences participants’ behaviour. While participants reported disposing plastic bottles (water, soft drink, juice) in the recycling bin almost 100 percent of the time, they reported recycling beverage cartons only about three quarters of the time, indicating confusion remains about the recyclability of cartons. Similarly, respondents were less confident about how to properly dispose of cartons (i.e., whether to choose the garbage bin or recycling bin) than plastic bottles. Both findings reinforce the ongoing need for carton-specific recycling education. To this end, earlier this year, CCC relaunched its targeted Facebook campaign in the Ontario and Quebec markets.

A copy of the study report may be requested from ECCC at [email protected].