Manufacturers will soon have to pay for cost of recycling in Ontario

Big changes could be ahead for municipal recycling programs across Ontario.

The province's Waste-Free Ontario Act will soon force manufacturers to take on the full costs of recycling their own products.

Municipalities currently carry half the cost of blue box recycling programs.

Sudbury's director of environmental services Chantal Mathieu says the new rules will be a huge financial boost for cities, and will change for the way businesses look at the manufacturing process.

"The province is saying no, no, no. Back up here a little bit. When you're making the product, make it last longer," Mathieu said.

"Think about where it ends up once its not usable anymore by your consumers."

Mathieu says that Sudbury has between 20 and 30 years of capacity left in its landfill, but other municipalities have far less time and space.

"It's expensive to run compost and recycling programs, but it's double the amount to site a new landfill. Nobody wants a new landfill in their backyard. We want to avoid that," she said.

She adds that there's currently a lot of financial pressure on cities to deal with waste.

"Right now we spend millions of dollars as a municipality managing these companies' products, and we can't afford it anymore."