Recycling in Canada is a comprehensive system for collecting, processing, and converting used materials into new products, which has become a fundamental part of the national waste management and environmental protection strategy. Unlike the linear “take-make-dispose” model, recycling supports a circular economy that maximizes resource use and minimizes waste. This system not only reduces the amount of waste going to landfills, but also provides significant economic, environmental, and social benefits to Canadian society.

Definition and principles of recycling

Recycling is defined as the process of collecting, processing, and converting materials that would otherwise become waste into new useful products. This process differs from simple reuse in that materials undergo physical or chemical treatment to create new products while retaining their essential properties. In Canada, recycling is guided by a waste management hierarchy that prioritizes waste reduction as the most desirable option, followed by reuse, recycling, energy recovery, and finally disposal as the least desirable option.

The Canadian recycling system is based on the principles of sustainable development and the circular economy, where waste is seen not as a problem but as a resource. This is radically different from the traditional approach to waste management, where materials are simply buried or incinerated. Instead, recycling creates a closed loop where materials continuously circulate through the economy, retaining their value for as long as possible.

History and development of recycling in Canada

Canada's modern recycling system has its roots in the environmental awareness of the 1970s and 1980s, when Canadians and government agencies began to recognize the problems of environmental sustainability and the limited capacity of landfills. The revolutionary moment came in 1981, when Resource Integration Systems, in collaboration with Laidlaw International, tested the first “blue bin” recycling system in 1,500 households in Kitchener, Ontario. The success of this project led the city of Kitchener to announce a public competition in 1984 for a citywide recycling system, which was won by Laidlaw, continuing the popular blue bin system.

Over time, governments implemented policies to reduce waste, such as banning certain materials from landfills and introducing programs that make manufacturers responsible for the proper disposal of their products. Since the 1980s, most medium and large municipalities in all provinces have implemented recycling programs based on curbside collection using bins, boxes, or bags. Today, hundreds of cities around the world use the blue bin system or similar variations.

Recycling structure in Canada

Provincial jurisdiction and diversity of systems

Canada does not have a single national recycling program, as provinces have jurisdiction over recycling and each has built its own system. This has created a patchwork of recycling programs and policies across the country, where no two systems are the same, but all strive for positive economic and environmental outcomes. Most medium and large municipalities in all provinces have curbside recycling programs.

At the national level, the federal sustainable development strategy aims to reduce waste sent to disposal by 30% by 2030. Environment and Climate Change Canada provides resources and initiatives to support recycling across the country.

At the provincial/territorial level, each province and territory sets its own recycling rules and policies. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs shift the cost of waste management to producers, incentivizing them to design products that are easier to recycle. Some provinces have deposit-refund systems for bottles, cans, and other beverage containers.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

Many provinces have moved to a recycling system called “extended producer responsibility.” This means that product manufacturers are responsible for managing materials at the post-consumer stage of a product's life cycle. This helps shift the costs and operational responsibility for managing recycling systems from local governments to manufacturers. This can make the system much more efficient, encourage packaging design for recyclability, create economies of scale, and save taxpayers money.

Alberta, in particular, is moving to EPR for single-use products, packaging, and printed paper starting in April 2025, which could significantly reduce costs for households. The switch to EPR will reduce blue bin fees for Calgary households from $9.34 per month to $2.17 per month, representing a savings of $7.17 per month or about $86 per year.

Recycling materials and processes

Primary materials for recycling

The primary materials for recycling in Canada are glass, aluminum, paper, cardboard, and some plastics. Each province has different rules about what can be recycled. Common materials that can often be recycled in Waste Connections recycling programs include:

• Paper: newspapers, magazines, office paper, cardboard, and paper packaging.
• Cardboard and cardboard boxes of various sizes and types.
• Plastic containers with the appropriate recycling markings.
• Glass bottles and jars of all colors.
• Food cans and foil, including aluminum materials.

Recycling and sorting process

When the blue and green recycling bins are full, they are collected by Waste Connections of Canada from the curb, apartment buildings, or depots. Once the materials are delivered to a recycling facility or material recovery facility (MRF), they are sorted and organized by material type. The sorted materials are then inspected for final quality control before being baled together and prepared for sale to end markets.

When your items are picked up from the blue bin, they go to a waste sorting facility for recycling. People and machines sort all mixed materials for recycling into different types of materials, compress them, and send them to markets where they will be transformed into new products. Since 2009, the blue bin and community recycling depot program has recycled over 930 million kilograms of materials.

Economic impact of recycling in Canada

National economic indicators

Recycling creates significantly more jobs than traditional waste management methods. On average, recycling creates at least nine times more jobs than landfills and incinerators. This is due to the processes of sorting, processing, selling, reusing, and remanufacturing.

The Canadian waste management industry employs approximately 25,000 people in landfills and incinerators, while the recycling industry employs approximately 125,000 people.

The Canadian Association of Recycling Industries (CARI) reports that the recycling industry generates 10 times more employment and revenue than the waste industry. Approximately 34,000 workers are employed directly, with another 85,000 indirectly.

Regional example: Alberta

In 2018, Alberta's recycling sector generated $700 million in economic value and created 7,500 direct jobs. With the right investment, this figure could double to $1.4 billion and 13,000 jobs.

Environmental benefits of recycling

Reduced greenhouse gas emissions

Recycling requires less energy than production from primary resources. Project Drawdown estimates that between 2020 and 2050, it will reduce emissions by 5.5–6.02 gigatons of CO₂, equivalent to taking more than a billion cars off the road each year. Aluminum recycling saves 95% of energy.

Reducing methane emissions

Organic waste in landfills produces methane, which has a higher global warming potential than CO₂. Composting significantly reduces these emissions. In 2022, over 3 million tons of organic waste were diverted from landfills.

Forest conservation and carbon sequestration

Paper recycling reduces deforestation by preserving trees, which are natural carbon sinks that store CO₂ in their biomass.

Plastic pollution issues

Scale of the problem

Canada produces over 400 million tons of plastic waste annually, and that number is growing. Canadians throw away 3 million tons of plastic waste every year, of which only 9% is recycled. The rest ends up in landfills, incinerators, or the environment. Over 4 million tons of plastic are discarded each year in Canada, and over 90% of it ends up in landfills, incinerators, or the natural environment.

About 86% of Canada's plastic waste ends up in landfills, while a mere 8% is recycled. The rest is burned in incinerators, contributing to climate change and air pollution, or ends up in the environment as litter. Canada also sends some of its plastic waste outside North America for “recycling,” which too often results in our waste polluting other countries rather than being properly recycled.

Microplastics and water pollution

Recent studies around the world indicate the presence of microplastics in groundwater, surface water, and even drinking water. By diverting plastics from landfills through sharing, reuse, and recycling, fewer plastic products are exposed to the environment and fewer microplastics are generated.

It is estimated that 1,420 tons of microfibers are released from washing machines and dryers into the Canadian environment each year. This is linked to the growth of polyester clothing and issues related to the filtration of microplastics during washing.

Circular economy and the future of recycling

Transitioning from a linear to a circular model

The circular economy represents an alternative to today's linear society that supports the sustainability, growth, and resilience of Canada's economy. Only 8.6% of materials extracted from the Earth are recycled back into the economy at the end of their use. Most ends up as “waste,” which often contributes to the pollution of our environment.

The circular economy offers an alternative to today's linear model of society that addresses the triple environmental crisis facing our planet: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. The vision of a circular economy is to optimize our resources by restoring and circulating materials through our economy indefinitely through waste-free design and keeping materials in use, while restoring natural systems.

Innovation and technology

The circular model has the potential to create new economic opportunities, build more sustainable communities and businesses, and stimulate innovation and investment. In a circular economy, we design products so that resources can be reused and reinvested in new products over and over again.

Circularity is not a new concept—these principles are consistent with traditional ways of living in harmony with the natural environment and within ecological boundaries. Ultimately, the circular economy aims to decouple limited resources from economic activity and long-term well-being so that prosperity can continue in a world of limited resources without environmental degradation.

Challenges and limitations of modern recycling

Quality and contamination issues

Recently, some recycling programs have been forced to remove materials from their programs, and glass or certain types of plastic are no longer allowed in the recycling stream. Better sorting is needed to find end markets that can take the materials to produce better quality materials.

The city of Calgary has seen an increase in contamination of blue and green bins over the past four years. The team's spot check program runs year-round and plans to visit 45,000 addresses this year. The team, which is mostly made up of senior students at this time of year, travels to several hundred homes ahead of the trucks on collection day.

Plastic recycling limitations

Despite current and emerging technologies for recycling plastic waste, recoverable tiny plastic particles (microplastics) cannot be addressed by existing collection methods due to their extremely small size. In addition, size reduction and washing during mechanical processing tend to release significant amounts of microplastics into the environment.

Approximately 13% of plastics enter water or air as microplastics from recycling facilities in the UK. A study of PET recycling facilities finds that microplastic emissions range from approximately 23–1836 mg/L in wastewater, which is distributed in effluent (8–83 mg/L) and sludge (52,166–68,866 mg/L) at the facility exit.

Regional specifics: Calgary and Alberta

Container system in Calgary

Calgary uses a color-coded system for waste sorting. Blue containers are for recyclable materials. It is important to sort these materials correctly, as non-recyclable items mixed with others can result in an entire batch of otherwise good recyclable materials being sent to landfill. Green containers are for organic waste. Black containers are for garbage, which is basically everything that does not go in the green or blue containers, with the exception of EPR items.

The City of Calgary provides up to four blue containers to single-family homes, unless they are part of an apartment or condominium. A minimum of 1 black container, 1 blue container, and 1 green container is required at each location. You can add or remove containers at any time, but monthly program fees will still apply to each household, even if containers are removed.

Recycling rates in Alberta

According to national statistics, Alberta had one of the lowest solid waste disposal rates in Canada in 2022, at less than 20%. This is significantly lower than the national average of 27.1% and well below leaders such as Nova Scotia (42.9%) and British Columbia (38.4%).

Alberta uses a variety of policy approaches to help Albertans achieve zero waste, including regulated extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems, regulated management programs, pilot programs, and voluntary programs. The Alberta Recycling Management Authority (also known as Alberta Recycling) is an independent agency created by the Alberta government under the Ministry of Environment to coordinate recycling in the province.

The future of recycling in Canada

Technological innovation

Canadian science and innovation initiatives are taking steps to address these information needs and related solution opportunities. Participants explored opportunities to improve the “circular economy” for plastics in Canada with less waste, less pollution, and more recycling. However, the concept of a completely closed loop for plastics remains a panacea.

At best, completely new plastics rarely provide more than two products in their linear economy from cradle to grave: the first product, which is created from the original raw material, and a second “end-of-life” product that uses recycled raw material. This second product could be a park bench or a polyester carpet. These second products cannot be recycled and end up in landfills across the country or worse.

Policy initiatives

There was strong support at the workshop for labeling standards for plastic products that would list harmful additives and increase recyclability after the product's initial use. Such standards would improve the identification, monitoring, and understanding of plastics and microplastics in the environment based on risk. Labeling could even increase the value of recycled plastic stocks.

The Government of Canada is working to support and expand these efforts through various initiatives, including “Healthy Environment, Healthy Economy,” “National Strategy to Encourage Manufacturing Recovery and Other Value-Retention Processes in Canada,” and “Government Greening Strategy.”

Conclusions

Recycling in Canada is much more than just waste management—it is a fundamental part of the transition to a sustainable, circular economy that creates jobs, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, conserves natural resources, and protects the environment for future generations. With an economic impact of over $700 million in Alberta alone and the potential to create over 100,000 additional jobs across the country, recycling demonstrates that environmental responsibility and economic prosperity can go hand in hand.

However, Canada faces significant challenges, particularly in the area of plastics recycling, where only 9% of waste is actually recycled, with the rest contributing to environmental pollution and climate change. The transition to extended producer responsibility, the introduction of new technologies, and improved consumer education are critical to overcoming these challenges.

The future of Canadian recycling depends on the successful integration of technological innovation, policy reform, and consumer behavior change. Only through collective efforts at all levels—from individual households to the federal government—can Canada realize the full potential of the circular economy and achieve its ambitious sustainable development goals for 2030 and beyond.