Waste Diversion Ontario to redesign Ontario's Blue Box database

Ontario's comprehensive waste reporting system to be refined

TORONTO, May 7, 2013 /CNW/ - Waste Diversion Ontario (WDO) announced today that it will be undertaking a redesign of Ontario's comprehensive database for residential garbage.

Every year since 2003, municipalities have used a reporting system called the Municipal Datacall to submit data to WDO on their waste diversion activities, with a particular focus on Blue Box tonnes recycled and Blue Box Program operating costs. The system also tracks such statistics as tonnes collected of garbage through residential collection programs, organics, electronics, household hazardous waste and other recyclables such as scrap metal.

Municipalities must report their data to WDO to qualify for Blue Box funding. The Blue Box Program is cost-shared between Ontario municipalities and Stewardship Ontario, a not-for-profit organization that is governed and funded by industry producers of Blue Box material.

"Ontario's Municipal Datacall system and database have served us well over the past 10 years," said WDO CEO Michael Scott. "It's time to update our system so we can make it more user friendly for municipalities, better capture changing trends, and get more research value from this data gold mine."

The main goals of this redesign are to end up with a system that: 1) allows for faster and easier reporting by municipalities; and 2) provides more accurate and useful data for WDO to analyze and report on to the public and stakeholders.

To make sure the redesign is ready for municipal reporting in 2014, WDO will work with municipal and industry representatives.

More than 95 percent of Ontarians in about 400 municipalities now participate in Ontario's residential Blue Box Program. What started as a small pilot project in Kitchener in 1981 has become a fixture in the province's households and an international success story. In 2011 alone, 904,850 tonnes of Blue Box waste was recycled, which weighs about the same as 80,000 empty school buses.

Waste Diversion Ontario (WDO.ca) is the not-for-profit organization funded by industry that oversees Ontario's current recycling programs for electrical and electronic equipment ("e-waste"), used tires, Blue Box material, and household hazardous waste. As part of its oversight role, WDO monitors these programs to ensure they meet diversion targets and are funded by the producers of the materials being diverted from our landfills. WDO is also responsible for enhancing public awareness of and participation in waste diversion programs.

SOURCE: Waste Diversion Ontario

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