Unsolicited proposal sparks debate about alternative recycling options for Hamilton’s blue box materials

Hamilton politicians want to find out if emerging technologies could change the way blue box materials are processed in the future.

The public works committee, in approving a motion presented by Ward 6 Councillor Tom Jackson, has voted to gather expressions of interest from “alternative technology providers.”

Jackson’s motion follows a downturn in the paper recycling market which cut into the city’s revenues to the tune of $1.2 million in 2018 and a ban on polystyrene, black plastics, bottle caps and coffee cup lids from blue boxes because of new recycling standards in China.

The vote to examine alternative technologies also follows an unsolicited pitch to Hamilton’s public works committee on Friday morning by a company called AmaLaTerra Inc.

Its presentation did not lay out projected costs or revenues, but spokesperson Jodi Formosi says they could eradicate the city’s plastic waste and transform it into green energy using a 50,000-tonne “steam reformation” processor.

Ward 8 Councillor John Paul Danko is among the skeptics of the proposal calling it “classic greenwashing,” while adding that it doesn’t solve the societal problem of “unconstrained consumption.”

Danko stresses that there’s a need to place more attention on the first two R’s, reduce and reuse, instead of focusing solely on the third R, recycling.

In the short term, a request for proposals (RFP) will be issued next week by city staff for processing of the city’s blue box recyclables, which means any potential switch to an alternative technology would be several years down the road.

The current contract for operation and maintenance of the City of Hamilton’s Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) expires on March 31, 2020.