Committee OK’s $500,000 upgrade at recycling plant

Niagara Region’s public works committee agrees with staff that now is the time to spend $500,000 on an upgrade to Niagara Recycling facilities.

Staff had been holding off recommending the expenditure because of uncertainty over possible industry changes at the provincial level, Catherine Habermebl, acting public works commissioner, told councillors Tuesday.

“We have put on hold investments in the recycling facility over the past couple of years pending a decision by the province to introduce an extended-producer-responsibility regime.”

Extended producer responsibility would shift the responsibility for collecting and processing recyclables from municipalities to the producers of packaging.

The problem right now is that market pricing is squeezing the industry because it is at levels not seen since 2009 for cardboard and hardpack, and since 1997 for newsprint. A staff report said revenue from January to April 2019 for fibre and container streams was at a net loss of about $770,000.

Habermebl said the $500,000 investment would be spent designing, building and installing a drum feeder.

Running the drum feeder is a critical step before additional investments can be made to improve the quality of processed material to make it more marketable. End markets are becoming stricter on contamination standards for baled material, the report said.

Habermebl said the latest information from the province is that it is still planning to move forward on the file despite the change in government.

“We feel as a staff this is still a wise investment given the current market conditions.”

The investment will pay for itself in about 2.2 years and does not include additional revenues from improved quality, the report said.

A drum feeder will eliminate black belts — where no material is on the processing line — and has increased output by as much as 15 to 20 per cent at other facilities, the report said.

The report said if the Region does nothing, it may end having to pay to get rid of the processed material or, even worse, be without anywhere to ship it.