Ontario's Blue Box Program Residential recycling services in the Province of Ontario, Canada, are primarily provided through municipal Blue Box programs. The Blue Box program is rooted in the City of Kitchner, Ontario, where it was first launched in September of 1981. The concept has developed into a network of municipal Blue Box programs collecting a variety of materials and providing service percent of households in the province.	Resources
The program is funded through an agreement between municipalities and industry, whereby each pick up 50% of the net costs, this arrangment is facilitated through Stewardship Ontario. In the last 10 years over 6.2 million tonnes of waste have been diverted from landfill. Since 1994 the quantity of waste diverted has increased every year. In 2005 over 850, 000 tonnes of material was processed via Ontario's Blue Box program. Waste Diversion Ontario Of the materials recycled through the Blue Box program newsprint and paper-based products such as cardboard make up 75% of the total material by weight. Glass is the second most recycled product by weight accounting for approximately 15% of all materials. Plastics make up approximately 5% of the program by weight, however since many plastics generally have a lower density than other materials they contribute greatly to the volume of material being processed. The most valuable commodities, being aluminum and steel contribute to the remaining 5% of the overall weight. Once material is collected at residential properties by either public or private haulers it is brought to a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) to be sorted. In general, MRFs use either a single or dual stream sorting process. In dual stream the material is separated by residents and collected separately as paper products and containers (i.e. glass, aluminum and plastic). With single stream there is no pre-sorting at the residential level and the material enters the MRF commingled. Recycling facilities use a variety of methods to sort material, including optical sorting, magnets to remove ferrous metals, eddy currents to remove aluminum, star screens for paper and manual sorting. Once material has been sorted it is either bailed or shipped loose to various end-markets, where it will once again be transformed into a usable product.
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Paper
Paper, the most recycled material in the Blue Box program, is sorted at MRFs into various grades and types, including old newsprint #6 (ONP6), mixed waste paper, old corrugated fiberboard (OCC), etc. Manual sorting and various screens are used to sort paper. Once the paper has been sorted it is shiped in bails or loose to various end-markets. End-markets produce a variety of products from waste paper i ncluding new paper, egg cartons, paper plates and other paper products. While there are differences in the recycling processes used by end-markets based on the type of paper being used (OCC, ONP, mixed waste paper) they all involve separating the fibers so they can then be reformed to create new paper. T he process most commonly includes the following steps; Pulping: Adding water and applying mechanical action to separate fibers from each other. Screening: Using screens, with either slots or holes, to remove contaminants that are larger than pulp fibers. Centrifugal cleaning: Spinning the pulp slurry in a cleaner causes materials that are more dense than pulp fibers to move outward and be rejected. Flotation: Passing air bubbles through the pulp slurry, with a surfactant present, causes ink particles to collect with the foam on the surface. By removing contaminated foam, pulp is made brighter. This step is sometimes called de-inking. Kneading or dispersion: Mechanical action is applied to fragment contaminant particles. Washing: Small particles are removed by passing water through the pulp. Bleaching: If white paper is desired, bleaching uses peroxides or hydrosulfides to remove colour from the pulp. Papermaking: The clean (and/or bleached) fiber is made into a "new" paper product in the same way that virgin paper is made. Dissolved air flotation: Process water is cleaned for reuse. Waste disposal: The unusable material left over, mainly ink, plastics, filler and short fibers, is called sludge. The sludge is buried in a landfill, burned to create energy at the paper mill or used as a fertilizer by local farmers. Every time paper is recycled, the fibers become shorter and weaker, so virgin pulp must be mixed with the used paper to provide strength. Because of this weakening, paper can only be recycled 4-6 times. Even though paper fibers can only be recycled a finite number of times, it still offers many evironmental and economic incentives to recycling. Virgin fibers for paper product production comes from plant sources, in North America the most common source of fiber is our forests. Recycling one tonne of newspaper saves approximately 12 trees. In 2005, the province of Ontario recycled over 600, 000 tonnes of paper products saving approximately 7.5 million trees. Not only does paper recycling save forest space, it reduces the energy required to produce paper by 40%, saves landfill space, reduces water and air pollutants by up to 74% and is cheaper to produce than paper made from virgin fibers.
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Plastics
Plastics have been playing an increasing role in consumer and industrial products, posing unique challenges to recycling initatives. Due to these challenges many plastic products are not included in municipal recycling programs. One of the greatest challenges is the large molecular structure that occurs as a result of the polymerization process. Unlike metals, which have a small molecular structure, different forms of plastics do not mix well using only thermal energy (heat). This makes it difficult to use recycled resins to produce a product that is structurally identically to a plastic product made from virgin resin. Plastics produced through different manufacturers, even when it is the same type of plastic, often vary structurally as well. This causes poor mixing and weakens the plastic made from recycled resin, thus limiting the applications of the recycled plastic. There are 6 main forms of plastic, each characterized by a resin identification code. Plastics that enter a Materials Recycling Facility are sorted based on these numbers. The main plastics that are sorted in municipal programs are #1 PET, #2HDPE, #4 (Film) and mixed plastics in the form of Tubs & Lids. These can be sorted either manually or automatically through optical sorting. The resin identification codes are described below; Polyethylene terephthalate (PET): Clear or coloured, bottles have a raised dot on the base. (ex. Single serve water bottles, liquor bottles, peanut butter) High-density polyethylene (HDPE): Translucent, opaque or coloured, does not crack when bent. (ex. Detergent bottles, motor oil, crinkly retail bags) Polyvinyl chloride (PVC): Clear, colourless, white creases, bottles have a seam on the base. (ex. Liquor bottles, household chemical containers, film wrap on meat packaging) Low-density polyethylene (LDPE): Flexible, smooth, soft to the touch (ex. Grocery bags, garbage bags) Polypropylene (PP): Transparent, clear or opaque, smooth, semi-rigid (ex. Coating on milk cartons, shrink wrap, bottle caps) Polystyrene (PS): Stiff but flexible, snaps when bent (ex. Foam PS - Coffee cups / Crystal PS - clear take out containers) Mix of Plastics: ex.Squeezable bottles for ketchup. Once the plastics have been sorted they are marketed to different plastics processors that use the scrap plastic in a range of applications. Some plastics are easier to reprocess than others, which leads to large differences in the marketability and market price of each form of scrap plastic. Most often scrap plastics are sold to processors who produce an intermediate product that can then be sold to another company who will use the processed plastic to produce a final good. The plastic is eventually transformed into a range of products from new bottles to fabrics in t-shirts.
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Aluminum
Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the world and also one of the most recycled, a fact that can be attributed to the strong price it commands in world wide commodities markets. It is estimated that over 50% of aluminum cans produced will be recycled, with some countries having a recovery rate of greater than 90%. High recovery rates and the durable nature of aluminum make it a very sustainable metal, with 2/3 of all the aluminum ever produced in use today. Once an aluminum can has been collected it can be found back on the shelves in as little as 60 days, truly a closed loop system. The recycling of aluminum provides many environmental and economic benefits. Aluminum recycling saves a significant amount of energy. In fact making aluminum cans takes 95% less energy, meaning 20 cans can be produced from recycled aluminum with the same energy needed to produce one can from virgin ore. The waste from throwing away one aluminum can is comparable to pouring out half the can's volume of gasoline. Aluminum is a sustainable metal and can be recycled over and over again. It is also the most valuable recycled consumer product. The marketing of aluminum allows municipalities to recoup some of the cost of recycling other less valuable products, which provides an economic incentive to recycle. Today it is cheaper, faster and more energy-efficient to recycle aluminum than ever before. Aluminum is 100 percent recyclable and can be recycled indefinitely. The process of recycling aluminum cans is described below; Aluminum cans are collected at residential drop-offs and by municipal pick-ups. Once cans arrive at the MRF they will be sorted using a device called an eddy current. The eddy current briefly electrically charges the can causing it to repel from the device off a sorting line into an awaiting bin. After, they condense the cans into highly dense, 30-pound briquettes or 1,200-pound bales and ship them off to aluminum companies for melting. At the aluminum companies, the condensed cans are shredded, crushed and stripped of their inside and outside decorations via a burning process. Then, the potato chip-sized pieces of aluminum are loaded into melting furnaces, where the recycled metal is blended with new, virgin aluminum. The molten aluminum is then poured into 25-foot long ingots that weigh over 30,000 pounds. The ingots are fed into rolling mills that reduce the thickness of the metal from 20-plus inches to a sheet that is about 10/1,000 of an inch thick. This metal is then coiled and shipped to can makers, who produce can bodies and lids. They, in turn, deliver cans to beverage companies for filling. The new cans are then ready to return to store shelves in as little as 60 days, only to go through the entire recycling process again.
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Steel
Steel is the most recycled material in the world. Sources of scrap steel range from steel cans collected in municipal recycling programs to old automobiles. Steels vary in composition, in order to qualify as a steel the material must consist of iron and a small percentage of carbon (greater than 1.7%). Additional ingredients, such as manganese, chromium and nickel, can be alloyed in to alter the properties of the steel. Due to steels high iron content it exhibits magnetic characteristics, except stainless steel due to a higher content of alloys such as chromium. The magnetic characteristics of steel is utilized to separate steel from other metals and materials using a large magnet. Magnets are also used in MRFs to seperate the steel from other containers on the sorting line. Many communities operate recycling programs for household sources of steel such as applicances and steel cans. Most Canadians have convenient access to steel can recycling, through curbside, drop-off , and buyback programs. The recycling and collection of automobiles often falls into the hands of private business who process the cars using large crushing machines and then extract the steel using magnets to then be sold to steel producers. There are two standard processes for making steel. The Basic Oxygen Furnacne process uses a minimum of 25% recycled steel. The Electric Arc Furnace process uses almost 100% recycled steel. For every ton of steel recycled, 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal, and 120 pounds of limestone are conserved.
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Glass
Glass recycling takes waste glass and transforms it into a usable product. Depending on the end use of the glass it may be sorted at material recycling facility into various colours, mainly; Flint (clear glass) Green glass Brown / Amber glass Some facilities do not sort the glass and market the material as mixed broke glass. Municipally recycled glass is then sold to glass processors to be cleaned and crushed. Mixed broken glass is usually sold at a negative price by municipalities, known as a tipping fee. The reason for this is the difficulty in processing the mixed broken glass due to high organic content and its limited end-market uses. The glass that has been processed is now known as cullet and is ready to be used in producing new glass or in secondary low value applications. The reuse of glass containers is preferable in terms of energy savings. However, using recycled glass in the production of new glass or other products significantly decreases energy use. Some secondary applications include use as a construction aggregate, in fiber-glass, highway construction, etc.
	Fast Facts on Glass: It takes approximately 1 million years for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill. You can save enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for four hours by recycling one glass bottle into a new bottle. Producing glass from virgin materials requires 30 percent more energy than from crushed, used glass. Used glass or “cullet” melts at a lower temperature than raw materials, reducing the demand for energy and lowering the production costs. Recycling one tonne of glass saves the equivalent of 10 gallons of oil.
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