Plastic Bag Recycling

Fiction: Plastic bags are not recycled, or have very low recycling rates in Canada.

Fact: No. Canada has a national network of plastic bag recyclers and recycling rates are high and growing as recycling expands.

The Facts

The recycling of plastic shopping bags that have not been reused for household and pet waste or for organics collection (40-60% of the bags) is very popular in Canada. Recycling rates are high: 32% in B.C, 32% in Alberta, 36% in Ontario and as high as 50% in some provinces in Atlantic Canada.¹

The bags are recycled and remanufactured, locally, extending the life of the resource and creating valuable green manufacturing jobs.
The bags are recycled through a national network of recyclers into new bags, outdoor furniture, office supplies, water pipes, plastic lumber, and garden supplies.

More Detail

Recycling rates are high and growing

Sources: End Market Statistics, NS & ON MOE Data, Recycling Council Input

There is a national network of bag recyclers coast to coast

The recycling of plastic shopping bags across Canada is supported by an extensive network of recyclers from coast to coast – large and small. The large recyclers are Merlin Plastics in Western Canada, EFS-plastics in Ontario, RCM Group in Quebec, and Inteplast in Atlantic Canada.

There are many successful recycling systems in Canada

The bags are recycled through a combination of blue box systems (pioneered in Peterborough, Ontario) and take-back-to-retail programs (in-store recycling).

Canadians are Innovators in Recycling Technologies

Canadians have been innovators and technology leaders in recycling. Twenty years ago, Inteplast (then PCL Packaging Corporation) pioneered bag-to-bag recycling programs or closed loop recycling with a major Canadian retailer – Sobey’s. This system returns clean, used bags to the manufacturer where they are recycled – shredded, flaked, pelletized and remanufactured back into new bags.

Recycled Products are Made in Canada

products made from recycled plastic bags

In Canada, clean, used plastic bags are seen as a valuable resource that should be used over and over again and recycled locally into new products. Recycling helps to extend the life of the resource. The bags in Canada are remanufactured not only into new bags, but outdoor patio furniture, office supplies, water pipes, and plastic lumber.

Toronto’s Western Beaches boardwalk is a plastic lumber boardwalk, made from 32 million recycled plastic shopping bags. It has a number of environmental benefits in that it lasts longer than a board walk constructed of wood, requires little maintenance, and resists insect infestations.

Reusable Bags are not Recyclable in Canada

Reusable bags, as a replacement for conventional plastic shopping bags, have been very helpful in reducing the number of conventional bags used, overall.
However, they are not recyclable in Canada and when the bags reach the end of their useful life, they are treated as waste and end up buried in landfill (Source: Journal de Montreal Analysis – Recyc-Quebec January 2011).

The reusable bags cannot be recycled because they are multi-material bags. They use different materials in the thread, handles and bottom inserts designed to add strength and durability. Further, some reusable bags have grommets or rings. The bags have to be deconstructed during the recycling process to separate these materials. This makes recycling time intensive and too costly.

In 2010, Le Journal de Montreal wrote a special investigative report on the effectiveness of reusable bags in reducing consumption of plastic shopping bags in Quebec. They talked with Recyc-Québec, recyclers, sorting plant operators and manufacturers.

Recyc-Québec (Société québécoise de récupération et de recyclage) is a Quebec government agency whose mandate is to promote, develop and foster reduction, re-use, recovery and recycling with a view to conserving resources.

The Le Journal de Montreal investigative report found that reusables had been very successful in reducing the number of conventional plastic bags in use. According to Recyc-Québec, there were 13.5 million reusable bags distributed in Quebec up to January 2011.

However, the Le Journal de Montreal investigation found that reusables are not as eco-friendly as hoped. An excerpt from their investigation follows:

Le Journal de Montreal, January 2011:

“In ecological jargon, we say that a product is considered green when it complies with the three “R’s”.

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

Reusable bags meet the first two criteria, because of the quantity of bags used, and of course, because they are reusable...but not the third, because in practice most of them are not recyclable. The bags they replace do not meet the first criterion, but partially the second (they often have other uses such as garbage bags) and can be recycled.”

Plastic Shopping Bags are Used to Recycle Organics in Toronto

In Toronto, plastic bags provide an excellent tool to recycle organic waste in the green bin.

To extend the life of landfills, it is important to recycle organic wastes which can account for between 16-43% of the solid waste stored in a landfill (City of Toronto - 33%, – 26%. Orillia – 35.1%, Simcoe County – 36%)

The City of Toronto came up with a unique strategy for its green bin organics collection based on the use of conventional plastic shopping bag as a recycling tool. Because plastic shopping bags are waterproof, the bags can be used to recycle organic waste which has a high wet component.

The plastic bags help reduce the yuk factor so that more residents will participate. It is particularly helpful for those who live in high rise dwellings. Over one million Torontonians live in apartment buildings, five stories or taller (Source: Statistics Canada 2006).

Studies

¹ End markets. NS & ON MOE, Recycling Councils
² Decima Research, 2005

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