17 | durahregion.com This Week Thursday, April 21, 2022 Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover Thank You for Doing Your Part! Katherine Ross, Waste Management Technician for the Region of Durham talks everything Waste. Send your waste related questions or comments to waste@durham.ca If you require this information in an accessible format, please call 1-800-667-5671 • durham.ca/waste A new Blue Box regulation (Ontario Regulation 391/21) came into effect on June 3, 2021. This regulation lays out terms by which Ontario's entire Blue Box recycling program will be overhauled over the next few years and transitioned to full extended producer responsibility (EPR). This transition will be phased in between July 1, 2023, and December 31, 2025. Durham Region's Blue Box Program will transition on July 1, 2024. Currently, municipalities and producers of the products and packaging recycled in the Blue Box split the costs of the Blue Box program 50/50 and municipalities are responsible for delivering these services to residents. The new regulation makes producers of designated products and packaging recycled in the Blue Box fully responsible for operating and financing the Blue Box program, including providing collection services, managing Blue Box materials, and achieving diversion targets to improve diversion, address plastic waste and recover resources for use in a circular economy. The intended outcome is to make producers responsible for the managing of the end of life for both their products and their packaging and while meeting specific diversion targets, they will make more conscious decisions about the materials used. This should result in less problematic recyclables in our Blue Box stream. To meet these targets, Producers can consider reuse, recycling, composting or anaerobic digestion, use of materials as aggregate (e.g. road building - limited to a certain percentage). Landfilling, landfill cover, incineration and energy from waste will not count towards achieving diversion targets. Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs) are being established to organize what the new system will look like and to operate the new program on behalf of producers. The next steps in the development of the new program includes PROs finalizing the details about how they will be collecting recyclables, what containers may be used (Blue Boxes, carts or other), how materials may be processed and who will be doing the collecting. The new Blue Box program will include all single-family residences and multi-residential buildings, schools, not-for-profit long-term care and retirement homes and municipal public spaces/parks currently receiving municipal garbage collection as part of the initial transition. In 2026 and beyond, non-serviced multi-residential buildings, schools, long-term care homes can request to be added to the Blue Box program. Durham Region's goals are to ensure that the transition of the Region's Blue Box program to EPR is as seamless and as beneficial as possible. Regional and Municipal governments have been advocating for more producer responsibility in the disposal of the products they produce for more than a decade in an effort to increase provincial diversion rates and to support a circular economy. Transition of Durham's Blue Box Program to Extended Producer Responsibility When certain steps to making change might seem as daunting as the issues themselves, how can a young person begin to make a positive difference on Earth Day and beyond? "Forging a strong relationship with nature is so important at any age, and a local park is a great place for a young person to do so on Earth Day," says Rachel Yanchyshyn, senior project manager for non-profit organization Park People. Yanchyshyn says that any Earth Day outdoor adventure can be further enhanced by the use of online platforms such as iNaturalist, which help people of any age identify types of trees, birds or plants they see along their way. "There are also all kinds of community cleanups and stewardship opportunities that are organized on Earth Day and beyond," she says. "Those kinds of activities begin to build a relationship between young people and nature -- allowing them to get dirty, use their hands, and leaving them with a sense of pride that they helped make a stream or forest just a little cleaner." Yanchyshyn adds that using the senses in a park space -- such as feeling crunchy leaves underfoot, or smelling a fresh flower -- can go a long way towards reminding young people that this is their home, and a home that must be taken care of. "The best thing anyone can do for the environment on Earth Day, or any day, is to learn about it," adds Sidney Howlett, engagement manager at GreenLearning Canada, "and to use that knowledge to help guide decisions that benefit the environment and our future." Acknowledging that young people will continue to play a crucial role in today's global environmental efforts, she points to GreenLearning Canada's extensive online hub of tools and resources intended to spark a passion for the environment in children and youth. "We have an entire program dedicated to renewable energy," she says, as an example, adding that all GreenLearning Canada's tools are open-access to the public, with construction plans requiring a simple login to the website. "We have modules on solar energy and wind energy, and even offer simple construction plans where kids can build such things as solar ovens created exclusively from things around the house." She further highlights more complex offerings, such as a model for an electric vehicle, as well as the site's popular energy calculator, which allows young people to measure their environmental impact based on their energy use. "When it comes to the environment, we tend to focus on adults because we have the voting and consumer power, but young people are crucial to effecting change," she says. "Arming them with the ability to enact change -- even through very small initiatives such as the ones we make available -- empowers them to realize they can make a difference." Isabel Julian of Environment and Climate Change Canada agrees, adding that on Earth Day an action as simple as planting a seed and watching it grow can have a huge impact on both the child and the environment around them. "Building a small garden in the backyard, on the balcony, or even inside is a lovely way to foster a connection between a young person and nature," says Julian. "It may be small in scale, but the action can be explained from a global perspective, teaching the child that everyone plays a part in helping the earth to thrive." Julian suggests a quick Google search for parents or youth who aren't sure where to start with a garden project, or a visit to the Canadian Wildlife Federation's website, which features a comprehensive DIY guide for building a pollinator garden. "As the saying goes, we cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see, touch and hear. So get out there, be safe, and have a great time exploring our beautiful planet." The best way to connect with the planet is to get outside and explore By Liz Beddall EARTH2022