Heather Wright/The Independent

Mayor Brad Loosely says the man in charge of the changes to the province’s recycling system admitted he made a mistake picking a contract which brought blue boxes back to Petrolia.

But that’s not the way the head of Circular Materials recalls the conversation.

New regulations for recycling came into effect in Ontario Jan. 1. One of the changes included new contracts for recycling providers. Petrolia’s contractor switched from Waste Management to Emterra. The switch includes returning to using blue boxes instead of the larger wheelie bins introduced in town just a year ago.

That brought howls of protest online, with the town taking the brunt of the criticism even though the changes and contract were provincially mandated.

At the end of the Jan. 12 council meeting, Mayor Brad Loosley announced the head of Circular Materials – the organization handling the recycling contracts across Ontario – called him in December.

Loosley stated that Allen Langdon told him “they had made a mistake in the Town of Petrolia. They thought that we were using blue boxes, and he stated that they should have called the town to see what we were using for recycling.”

That’s not how Langdon remembers the conversation.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Langdon told The Independent Tuesday. “I think what happened is we did procurement; that the procurement led to a decision to go forward with blue boxes, and that’s what we did. I think it’s unfortunate that we had to do the switch after one year, for sure. But, you know, we followed a procurement process, and that was the result of the process.”

Langdon said the only parameters the bidders had to reach was a minimum of a recycling pickup every other week, according to the new recycling regulations set out by the province in June 2021. That regulation shifted the cost of recycling from municipal governments to the producers of the waste, including packaging manufacturers and bottling companies on Jan. 1.

In effect, cost was one of the main factors in choosing the new contractors.

Langdon says the contracts were awarded to companies in a region with a number of municipalities involved. Circular Materials, he said, wouldn’t have time to look into past contracts in a single municipality.

“We’ve been procuring for over 400 municipalities in a very tight window …we were working to establish that we would have a collector and collection services in place in time for the transition. That has been the primary focus.”

 During his statement to council, Loosley added he told Langdon “We all make mistakes, but would like to see that corrected by giving notice to cancel the contract or rebid to use wheelie bins. Mr. Langdon agreed to send me an email of apology.”

Loosley added he hasn’t received it yet.

“Residents,” he continued, “in regards to recycling and any issues or concern, please call your local MPP…This is direction from the province and not the town. 

“So I just wanted to make sure that the public were clear this has nothing to do with the town. This was mandated by the province.”