Recycling at CityHousing buildings paused during the pandemic. It hasn’t returned
Elizabeth McGuire, 71, is tired of dumping her recyclables in the garbage.
It's a terrible state of affairs," she said. We seniors were the first generation to start recycling ... but we can't recycle (anymore)."
McGuire shares the concern with other residents at 226 Rebecca St. - a 199-unit seniors' apartment run by Hamilton's CityHousing.
Last year, recycling at all CityHousing multi-residential buildings - including 226 Rebecca and 181 Jackson St. - was put on hold to ensure the health and safety of our staff," Tracy Murphy, manager of CityHousing told The Spectator.
Due to the requirement to physically hand-sort recyclables to ensure items have not been placed in the wrong bins, our recycling program was on hold for approximately one year during the height of the pandemic," Murphy said in an email response.
But the recycling services haven't been restored at 226 Rebecca yet.
McGuire, who has lived in the building for eight years, told The Spectator, that the management was going to resume recycling in January, but they're still not doing it."
Coun. Jason Farr cited the issue to staff shortages at the city, combined with the safety concerns of employees during the peak of the pandemic that paused the line of work."
Keith Alarie, 60, moved to the apartments this April.
When I moved here ... I asked (the management) while signing the papers if the recycling is available here," Alarie said. He was told the service wasn't available and the management is looking to get into recycling again."
I've been waiting for it since," Alarie told The Spectator.
Farr ensured pausing recycling was always temporary."
He noted restoration of services at 226 Rebecca St. has been delayed by a few months, but I'm going to make sure it's back up and running within a month."
Murphy said CityHousing is actively working" to resolve the issue, mainly being staffing shortages.
The property manager also confirmed work is underway on a process to ensure that bins and their contents get picked up regularly," she said.
There are about 18 recycling bins outside the building, Murphy said, that have had issues in past being filled with items that are not recyclable."
In 2021, about 85 per cent of recyclables in Hamilton were sent to the recycling market, while this year so far, almost 83 per cent of the recyclables have been sent for recycling, Angela Storey, director of waste management at the city said.
She noted the most common contamination found in recycling boxes are black plastic, fast food garbage, and chip and cookie bags with aluminum lining.
John Mills, 70, a resident of 181 Jackson St., told The Spectator, there's a lack of education on what's recyclable and what isn't.
Nobody seems to want to tell us what the numbers are (on plastic packaging) or if they will be recycled," he said.
The city conducted a pilot last fall that focused on providing better educational resources to tenants, followed by waste audits and a tenant survey. Results are still pending, said Ryan Kent, manager of waste policy and planning with the city.
Mills also questioned why apartment buildings don't do compost.
Currently, city buildings don't have compost chutes. Farr mentioned building volunteers often bury green waste in community gardens.
Going forward, new buildings would be required to have chutes for both recyclables and compost waste, according to the updated design approved by city council last November.
Ritika Dubey is a reporter at The Spectator. rdubey@thespec.com