Recycling changes in B.C. continue to raise ire of businesses

WATCH: CFIB Director Mike Klassen and MMBC Director Allen Langdon debate the changes to B.C.’s recycling program on Unfiltered.

Upcoming changes to B.C. recycling system continue to be criticized by some small businesses, but the new organization in charge is adamant the system will be for the better.

“When I talk to municipalities, this is a great deal. Industry has to take on the responsibility now,” says Multi-Material BC Director Allen Langdon.

“If I’m in Burnaby or Richmond, it’s all the same now.”

MMBC is the new organization appointed to handle 185,000 tonnes of packaging and printed paper after it has been collected from B.C. homes and depots. When it goes into effect in May, it will streamline the process of how recycling is done in over 85 B.C. communities. The post-collection system will employ 570 people in B.C. and bring $32 million in new investment for a container recycling facility in the Lower Mainland and a material recovery facility in Nanaimo.

However, it would also shift the regulation and cost of recycled materials away from utility fees paid by taxpayers, and on to businesses. That has some small businesses claiming the added costs are unfair.

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“This hurts for small businesses operating on thin margins,” says Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses B.C. Director Mike Klassen.

“You’ve got a government that espouses the principles of free enterprise but who have created a veritable monopoly.”

It was reported yesterday that Fraser Plastics, a Maple Ridge plastic company, is shutting down because it hasn’t been given contracts by MMBC in the new system. There has also been complaints by newspapers, who say having to pay for the cost of recycling will put a further strain on their industry.

MORE: Businesses crying foul over new BC’s new recycling program

Langdon says the adjustments companies will need to make are relatively minimal. He also said all industries have to make changes from time to time.

“Every company who won in our bids, they have lost bids in the past, and they retooled.”