By Mike Anderson

Small business owners within the Town of Georgina’s Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) are disappointed with council’s decision to end the blue box collection of their recyclable waste as of January 1, 2026.

On January 22, council voted 6-1 to approve a staff recommendation not to extend the collection to “non-eligible” sources, which include Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional (IC&I) properties, daycares, places of worship, businesses within BIAs, non-profits or charitable organizations, and shelters, making them responsible for contracting waste management companies to collect their recyclables.

These “non-eligible” sources are no longer covered under the province’s new blue box program, which is transitioning to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).

EPR shifts the cost of collecting and recycling packaging waste from municipalities to Circular Materials Ontario (CMO), a national non-profit corporation tasked with helping producers like Costco, Coca-Cola, and Nestle meet their obligations under EPR.

According to a staff report, some 136 small businesses, non-profits and places of worship that have previously received municipal blue box collection, as their locations are along existing residential collection routes, are no longer covered by EPR.

Continuing recycling collection for these locations would be significantly more expensive, roughly $120,000 per year—more than one-third of the $300,000 the Town will save in recycling costs by transitioning to EPR.

According to the report, providing recycling collection to “non-eligible” sources is more costly because “eligible” recycling cannot be combined with “non-eligible” recycling under the legislation, which means separate trucks and sortation facilities must be used.

“They cannot collect recyclables in the same truck, and they can’t process them in the same facility,” Michael Vos, the Town’s Director of Operations, said.

In addition, manual pick-up of blue boxes is no longer an option. Instead, CMO-contracted trucks will pick up recyclable materials in carts. The Town would also be charged per pick-up, not by weight.

The report states that recycling collection for “non-eligible” sources would be approximately 30 times more expensive per location than the existing residential collection.

While the staff report offered three options, including continuing municipal recycling collection, discontinuing the service, or introducing a user-pay system, after much discussion, council opted for option two: discontinuing the service.

However, it added a recommendation asking staff to work with the Georgina Chamber of Commerce (GCC) and affected businesses to report on the issues associated with the transition to EPR and provide options, including financial, to support businesses during the transition.

The decision not to extend the blue box collection was made despite the council hearing three deputations—advocating that collection be extended—by Jackson’s Point BIA Chair Steve Jacobson, representing the affected BIAs, GCC Executive Director Jennifer Anderson, and Karen Wolfe, representing Pefferlaw Area Residents (PAR).

Ward 4 Councillor Dale Genge was the sole dissenting vote.

“Our businesses have been suffering,” Genge said. “I’m concerned about how they will manage the collection if each gets their own contractor. There are no economies of scale whatsoever. They already pay extra tax for being in the BIA to promote the BIA. And they do a lot for our town, organizing festivals and events. I’m very concerned that we are adding to the burden these specific businesses must take on.”

While Councillor Dan Fellini did not take part in the vote, declaring a pecuniary interest, the other councillors were adamant that the blue box collection should end for “non-eligible” sources, principally because it didn’t seem fair to extend the collection to some businesses and not others.

“It’s important to note that we don’t currently pick up materials from all businesses in town. So the vast majority are dealing with recycling and the cost of that,” Councillor Naomi Davison said.

“So are we going to start a new service at a high cost to cherry-pick around the town and pick up recycling from only those people? I can’t support that.”

“This is not a made-in Georgina problem; this is a legislative thing. I feel that providing an external service to a select few businesses is a slap on the face to all the other businesses in the community,” Councillor Lee Dale added.

However, many small business owners within the BIAs disagree. They don’t want to pay an additional cost, estimated to be between $1,200 and $2,400 a year, to have their recyclables collected. Many storefronts also lack space to accommodate a recycling cart or bin, and trucks can’t access their laneways to pick them up anyway.

Michael Ramzay, the owner of Orange Health Medical Centre, says he already pays high property taxes and expects the Town to provide essential services, like blue box collection, in return. He doesn’t understand why he must pay to collect his recycling.

“We pay $7,000 in property taxes. And our business relies on blue box collection because of the operations of drugs and medications and the dispensing process,” Ramzay said.

“We’ve been doing our best to bring doctors and medical services to the town. So, this is very disappointing to us.”

“In light of everything going on, you would think they would think twice about cutting an essential service to the small businesses in town. We’re struggling already,” Frank Sebo, manager and co-owner of the Sutton General Store, added.

Sebo also said he only learned about the council vote last week when Councillor Genge distributed a letter.

Debbie Belinas, owner of Sweet Pea Boutique and a member of the Sutton BIA Board, also believes the issue should have been flagged earlier for small businesses.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t have time to discuss this with our councillor or the Town. Things need to be communicated better to all businesses here, not just businesses in the BIA — all businesses in Town. We’re all in this together, and it shouldn’t feel like you’re sticking it to me. It shouldn’t feel that way.”

Belinas also thinks the Town could find the money to continue blue box collection.

“I guess they’re recouping $120,000 a year, but I feel they can recoup that money by maybe trimming some other things.”

Former Mayor Rob Grossi, who served on the Association of Municipalities (AMO) EPR committee, agrees.

“If you’re going to save $300,000 from producer responsibility, then spend $120,000 to make sure that those businesses, who are the lifeblood of your community, are accommodated,” Grossi said.

“Sometimes you have to accommodate small businesses in small towns so that they can survive.”

Mike Anderson
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