Tiny Township Mayor Dave Evans gave residents caution for the future of recycling collection within the township, the county and the province over the next year and a half, as well as its potential impact on local infrastructure.
The matter was addressed at the recent meeting of council where Evans drew attention to an announcement by Simcoe County regarding recycling collection changes for businesses, taking effect on January 1, 2026.
Under the provincial Blue Box Regulation, recycling producers would be responsible for their recycling through to end-of-life, including residential locations, schools, and non-profit long-term care homes/seniors residences.
“The onus will be on industrial, commercial and institutional (IC&I) locations to set up and potentially cover costs for their own recycling systems by self-hauling recycling to a (county) waste drop-off facility or obtaining private collection,” said Evans. “Think about that for awhile… we’re working our way through this. I wanted to start making people aware of this now because (as a community) we’re going to have to start to plan and think where this garbage is going to go.”
Designations for IC&I locations included: all private sector businesses; places of worship; daycares; campgrounds; and not-for-profit organizations as well such as shelters and food banks.
Evans acknowledged that Tiny Township had “a comparatively small commercial portion”, and added that another IC&I location included was for “public facing and internal areas of municipal buildings and/or facilities – i.e. right here”, with examples of libraries and arenas.
“As of January 1, 2026, even residential recycling will be picked up by a private organization,” said Evans. “It’s a fundamental change. There’s no increased cost aspect of it from that perspective, but certainly the infrastructure for the recycling on the residential side is still somewhat of a (to be determined) as well.
“We will be watching this closely for the next year and a half, if not probably after that as well, to see how well it gets implemented. But I do want to give people a heads up on that.”
Regional initiatives toward waste management have been increasing since the anticipated full capacity for Simcoe County landfills was expected to happen in 2027.
Information on waste management can be found on the organics, recycling and garbage page of the Simcoe County website.
The 2026 recycling collection changes for businesses announcement can be viewed on the agenda page on the Township of Tiny website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on the township’s YouTube channel.
