Welcome to the first edition of the Continuous Improvement Fund's e-newsletter: CIF Connections. For many months now, we've been working with Ontario communities to develop and implement projects that will help make the Ontario recycling system more cost-efficient and more effective. If you've had a chance to check out our website ( www.wdo.ca/cif) you may have seen our ever-expanding list of approved projects. Municipalities will have reduced their operating costs by over $4.1 million per year and increased capacity by over 120,000 tonnes per year when these projects are fully implemented.
A key role for us at CIF is to help make CIF project support as accessible as possible and we're pleased to announce that we are nearing 60 project approvals for communities from Kenora to Niagara, and Cornwall to Windsor. The total allocation of approved projects currently stands at $13.4 million with $13.5 million still available to invest in 2009. In a recent stakeholder survey we heard that the CIF application could be improved upon. Read the story below to see how we've redesigned the application process. We are encouraged by the feedback that we received in the stakeholder survey that many of you completed and we will be working to ensure CIF is meeting your expectations. If you'd like to view a summary of the survey and key findings, click here. We are also developing the 2010 CIF Operations Plan which will guide the fund's priorities for next year and encourage you to discuss your ideas with CIF staff, your MIPC members or your CIF Projects Committee members. Sharing the municipal successes in improving their blue box programs with the support of CIF will be the focus of this new monthly email publication. We'll be sure to keep you up to date with CIF projects, new program developments and events that matter to recyclers. We'll send it to you at the beginning of each month and look forward to receiving your feedback - not just for this initial edition but over the many months to come. Along with my staff, I am always just a phone call or email away and will welcome your project ideas and input to continuous program improvement.
705-719-7913 |
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Connecting about...CIF projects! |
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 BASWR's Eddy Current Separator Promises Cost Savings and Stronger Markets
Nestled in the scenic community of Southampton, the Bruce Area Solid Waste Recycling (BASWR) MRF faces challenges common to many rural recycling programs, with significant seasonal population swings, long distances to market and miles of country roads to incorporate in its curbside collection program.
Established in 1989, BASWR services almost 90% of Bruce County, including 7 different municipalities. This recycling plant opened in November of 1990 and currently processes approximately 5,400 metric tonnes per year of curbside material including about 95 tonnes of aluminum annually.
As in many MRFs of its day, aluminum is the final product to come off the line, requiring all residue to be positively picked to ensure a clean, marketable stream. With the market tightening specifications for recovered material, BASWR's sortation costs were becoming prohibitive.
Installing an eddy current separator became the obvious solution and BASWR selected the DINGS 91 Series. The total cost of the installation was under $120,000 with estimated annual savings of almost $53,000. The new equipment was commissioned in July, 2009 and BASWR staff are already seeing significant improvements in reduced labour and improved throughput.
"This project epitomizes the kinds of initiatives that the CIF was intended to support, By incorporating this new equipment in their facility, BASWR staff have addressed their top 3 issues: sorting increasing volumes of material, meeting market specs and maintaining program costs. It's a simple solution that makes sense and we're happy to have been invited to be a part of it" said Mike Birett, CIF Program Manager. |
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Co-operative Municipal Efforts Make Recycling Possible Along the North Shore of Lake Superior
Faced with the economic and geographical challenges common in many remote communities, Terrace Bay, Schreiber, Nipigon & Red Rock banded together to evaluate regional opportunities and create a recycling action plan for the 10,000 local residents and 350 businesses. The Town of Marathon, which does have a recycling program, also took part.
With limited human and financial resources, the communities asked if CIF could undertake the evaluation project on their behalf. The CIF undertook the project for the communities and funded the $12,000 cost.
In his presentation to the June Ontario Recycler Workshop, Sean Irwin, the Special Projects Co-ordinator for Terrace Bay highlighted some of the barriers to implementing a recycling program here: distance from larger urban centres, economic pressures caused by a crisis in the forestry industry and a lack of concern about landfill life expectancies. Despite these, the communities are keen to consider offering waste diversion solutions.
The CIF contracted with Robins Environmental to assess the feasibility of establishing a cooperative recycling program. The study evaluated current waste management programs, cost issues, stakeholder interests and market options.
The project report weighs recycling service options and recommends using a cube van and existing garbage collection crews to provide bi-weekly curbside collection. The report highlights the importance of a strong promotion and education campaign to support the program.
Although curbside collection is more expensive, this report argues that the higher costs would be offset by social, environmental and longer term economic benefits. The study results are due to be presented to each of the four councils and the individual communities will decide how to proceed and whether to implement recycling.
"These communities are doing the right thing," says Clayton Sampson, CIF Project Manager, "they're working together to develop a common cost-effective solution and to improve the quality of life for their residents. That's what the CIF is all about and it's why we were so pleased to be able to help out."
View the project report.
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CIF and Partners Announce Pilot Project to Add New Plastics Processing Capacity
The CIF has contributed $1.9 million to support two pilot projects for the reprocessing of mixed plastics, adding to a $2.4 million grant supplied by Stewardship Ontario. In a recent joint announcement, the project team highlighted the selection of two Ontario facilities (through a competitive bidding process) to process blue box film and mixed rigid plastic packaging. The selected facilities are:
- EFS Plastics of Elmira, which will expand its film/mixed household rigid plastics operations by approximately 9,500 tonnes
- Entropex of Sarnia, which will add a pilot scale mixed plastics processing line to its existing HDPE recycling plant, enabling it to process about 16,000 tonnes of rigid blue box plastics
"This is an important step in the right direction" stated Andy Campbell, CIF Program Director, "but even with these pilots working at full capacity, additional processing capacity is needed. Where Stewardship Ontario and blue box stewards are responsible for developing sustainable markets for recycled plastics, the CIF is committed to working with and on behalf of municipalities to address recycling infrastructure issues. MRFs need to be modified to handle the ever increasing number of plastic containers. It's not the weight, it's the volume!"
For the CIF, this project is part of a comprehensive strategy to address the impacts of new plastics entering MRFs, and the changing composition of plastics which is affecting MRF performance and the ability of municipalities to market the material. The CIF is engaged in technology design issues and is working with MRF operators to identify equipment upgrades and sustainable solutions. As part of this, the CIF has already invested in improvements to plastics/container processing in the retrofitted Bluewater, Hamilton and Niagara MRFs, and in the soon to be constructed London regional MRF.
This project is in its start up phase. One of the many next steps include sourcing a supply of blue box plastics through agreements with interested municipalities and understanding the implications to municipal collection and processing operations. If you want to be kept informed about this project or potentially participate, contact Mike ( mbirret@wdo.ca or 905-936-5661).
The CIF will begin working with interested municipalities to start the project in late 2009, running through 2011. Over the next few issues of CIF Connections, please look for updates on project timing and how your municipality might get involved. |
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Improving Multi-residential Capture in the City of Peterbough
Earlier this year, Peterborough staff members took time to review their multi-residential (MR) program and met with CIF staff to see where they could make improvements. With CIF assistance they developed a plan to implement MR best practices across their program.
The project is well underway and the best practices will include: completing site visits at all buildings, measuring program performance, updating their database, and increasing the number of recycling containers in the program to the ratio of 1 cart per 7 units. The final phase of the project is due to start this fall and will involve production and distribution of new promotion & education (P&E) materials and out-reach activities.
Peterborough had not previously provided P&E specific to the multi-residential sector and recent inspections at buildings found that carts labels were out-dated and worn. To develop its MR P&E materials, Peterborough is partnering with another CIF project (#166), which has a mandate to design MR P&E materials for use by multiple municipalities. The city is scheduling a variety of events at buildings including attending condo meetings, lobby displays, door-to-door visits and barbeque lunches for its MR out-reach program.
"In addition to providing project funding, CIF staff have been very accessible and offered valuable input to help move this project along," comments Virginia Swinson, City of Peterborough. "The CIF provided assistance to complete our project application and provided their expertise at many steps along the way."
Peterborough has 150 MR buildings with 6,500 multi-res households, representing close to 20% of all households. The CIF contributed $13,250 to the total project budget of $47,000. In addition CIF Project 166 covers the cost of the design for P&E development. Many municipal multi-residential programs could benefit by following the same procedure as Peterborough. If this is of interest to your community, contact Anne Boyd with the Multi-residential Support Project aboyd@london.ca or 519 661-2500 ext 7304. |
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New CIF Form Simplifies Application Process; CIF Staff Offer Direct Assistance for Applicants
Applying to the CIF is faster and easier with the launch of a new online application tool combined with dedicated staff support to complete your applications.
We heard you! Your informal comments and the results of our recent stakeholder survey told us that the CIF application process was not working as well as it should. We've used your comments to redesign the process and launched an all new application tool to serve you better.
The application consists of an online form that can be completed by individual applicants or by working step by step with a CIF staff member. While the form is designed to be completed over the internet, we're pleased to send out other versions that you can save to your system or fax in as hard copy.
When you begin to think about making an application, we hope you will do the following:
Make sure that your project idea fits with CIF priorities
CIF projects include implementation-based cost efficiencies and savings, system improvements, and cooperation among municipalities. Implementing program wide projects based on recommendations from successful Effectiveness & Efficiency Fund and other CIF projects is ideal. Review our "Fund Priorities" page to make sure that your concept fits into one of the CIF priority areas. The CIF focus is on projects that will immediately improve costs and efficiency, not on writing studies that may not be implemented.
Review the application form, start a new form for your project; add basic information then save
To view the new application tool click here. The objective of the CIF approval process is to have applicants demonstrate the business case for each funding request. You can create a new form at any time and add in as much information as you can, then contact a CIF staff member for any assistance you need to complete your CIF application.
Save your form and worksheet, then submit them to CIF Think of your online submission as the start of the process. A CIF staff member will contact you to follow-up. By following the process above, the majority of essential questions will have been addressed, leading to a faster evaluation process and successful project approval.
To view the new CIF application form or to start-up an application, click here: CIF Application
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- Planning Underway for Fall ORW in first week of December; Invitations to Come in Early November
On Thursday, June 11, nearly 150 people registered to take part in the first Ontario Recycler Workshop to be hosted by the CIF. We were delighted to see many old friends and to welcome new participants from all corners of the province who attended in person and by webcast.
This session took place in Kingston, Ontario, beginning with a tour of the Norterra Compost Facility on the Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday morning, John Giles kicked off the ORW presentations with a lively introduction that paved the way for a full day of project and issue updates by municipal representatives, WDO, Stewardship Ontario, and two stewards representing P&G and Walmart.
We are grateful for the feedback that you provided and your thoughts on topics for future sessions. We acknowledge continuing interest in effective promotion and education, MRF issues, plastics, rural recycling and municipal partnerships and in new topics such as extended producer responsibility, seasonality and other materials.
Planning is underway for the fall ORW, which will take place at the Novotel Downtown Toronto at the end of the first week of December (tentative date is December 3). We will send out invitations to this ORW in early November, along with details about speakers and key topic areas. All information will also be posted to the ORW page of the CIF website. |
Question of the Month... |
In each issue, we will invite readers to share your views on one question that pertains to the work of the CIF, the recycling industry as a whole or other topics of concern...
The CIF strategic plan identifies our priorities as Best Practice, Innovation, Emerging Technologies and Communication & Education. If CIF only focuses on these items, will the fund meet your needs or do you believe we should have other priorities?
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