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Owen Sound chamber and other chambers of commerce will meet with Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Paul Vickers on Jan. 23 on this issue.
Published Jan 14, 2026 • 3 minute read
A meeting held Wednesday in Owen Sound discussed impacts of provincial recycling changes on businesses, charities and other sources of recyclables. Photo by Brent Calver/Postmedia /Brent Calver/PostmediaArticle content
Provincial recycling rules now exclude non-residential sources of recyclables from free Blue Box pickup.
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That means businesses and other non-residential sources of recyclables including charities and churches face unwelcome new expenses and inconvenience to get rid of their recyclables themselves.
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A meeting held Wednesday was called by the Owen Sound & District Chamber of Commerce to explain what’s changed and hear about possible options. Miller Waste answered questions and offered rough estimates some used to figure out their own disposal costs.
Miller collects residential garbage and recyclables under contract with the city and operates a depot for recyclables in Owen Sound. It also contracts to pick up some business waste.
Meeting attendees included people who work in retail, hospitality, non-for-profits and educational institutions, who discussed common concerns and possible collective solutions.
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On a related front, people with the Owen Sound chamber and other chambers of commerce will meet with Paul Vickers, the member of provincial parliament for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, on Jan. 23 on this issue.
The chamber representatives will attend to “discuss the impact of the new provincial recycling program on small businesses and to advocate for practical solutions moving forward,” chamber president Tiffany James said by email.
Also, the chamber will host an information meeting in February, like Wednesday’s meeting, at a date yet to be set, she said.
Adrienne Robinson, who co-owns the downtown bakery Sugar Dust, said she found the meeting helpful but not all the answers are apparent yet. They have two big blue bins for recyclables which soon could cost an estimated $120 per month to dispose of.
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“It think it’s a big concern, in the sense that, especially small businesses, that we already have so many bills and everything that we’re trying to juggle just to stay afloat,” particularly this slower time of the year.
“It’s now just another hoop that small businesses have to jump through to get their stuff picked up.”
She said she’s concerned some businesses might just toss their recyclables in the garbage, which they may already pay Miller to pick up anyway. Sugar Dust puts its garbage in a dumpster which it shares with other businesses and they share to collection costs.
“So I’m really hoping that’s not the mindset that people are going to have. Because obviously environmentally, recycling is super important. But businesses obviously are struggling, especially small businesses during the winter, it might unfortunately come to that for some of them.”
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Francesca Dobbyn, the executive director of the United Way Bruce Grey, foresees spending possibly $500 to $1,000 per year to have someone take away their cardboard. It will be the same for the OSHaRE soup kitchen and the SOS homelessness outreach program, she said.
“We’re lumped in as a business because we’re simply not a resident . . . and the provincial changes said that the new recycling will only pick up from residents.”
She said she sees an opportunity for the River District to work out a weekly cardboard pickup from its members, paid through the levy members pay or money on top of it.
“It’s another cost for the charitable sector to try and fundraise to cover,” Dobbyn said.
She said meeting attendees asked questions to the Miller representatives, such as whether there would be a minimum pickup schedule like once a week. It’s customizable, they said.
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She wondered if the not-for-profits got together could their recyclables be picked up, say every Wednesday, to streamline pickup scheduling. Maybe there could be a 9th Street East group which organizes their pickup. Or could some share a recycling dumpster’s cost?
“Those are all the kinds of conversations we could have in terms of solutions. But the bottom line is unless there’s a provincial change that includes businesses, the charities are going to have to pay.”
Businesses and the others which have been receiving city recycling pickup since 2023 got a small break when city council decided to cover the cost of recyclables pickup from the newly ineligible sources until March 31. Otherwise they’d have faced paying when the new rules took effect Jan. 1.
Circular Materials Ontario, a not-for-profit producer-pay consortium that administers the municipal Blue Box recycling program in Ontario, took over payment of curbside recycling pickup services in Owen Sound in July 2023.
Its mandate considers the only eligible sources of recyclables for collection to be homes, apartments, public spaces including parks and sidewalks, and seasonal residences in campgrounds and trailer parks. When the city was paying, it picked up from all sources.
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