This is the user sandbox of Rlacroix156. A user sandbox is a subpage of the user's user page. It serves as a testing spot and page development space for the user and is not an encyclopedia article. Create or edit your own sandbox here. Other sandboxes: Main sandbox | Template sandbox Finished writing a draft article? Are you ready to request review of it by an experienced editor for possible inclusion in Wikipedia? Submit your draft for review!

In the history of recycling in Canada, a story that stands out as a “first” is that of Citizens’ Committee for Pollution Control (CCPC). In May, 1970, an informal womens’ group did a short recycling experiment in Burlington, Ontario, which after 11 years led to Ontario’s first municipal contract (supported by the City of Burlington, supported by provincial funds) for city-wide, multi-material, curbside recycling. Halton's Recycled Resources was the first contractor.

It is important to note the sociological and economic factors leading up to this recycling effort. The 1960s were a time of a “throwaway” economy: disposable dresses and underwear, diapers, plastic grocery bags, single-serving food and treat packaging, etc. Packaging proliferated and littering became a problem. Landfill sites filled and new ones often replaced valuable farmland. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, startled nature-lovers. The eggs of wild birds were shattering in the nests due to the effects of DDT. In 1969, Canadian Magazine predicted the collapse of Earth’s natural systems within 10 years. In spring of 1970, a teacher named Don Carter was activated by this publication to promote environmental action.

Don Carter began by arranging for a large delegation of school children to attend a City Council meeting to request the establishment of an annual civic Environment Week. This was successful and the first Environment Week was announced for May 10-17. Don’s other action was to get almost 100 community organizations involved in an environment fair. During the media coverage of these two actions, he issued a challenge to neighbourhood groups to carry out environmental projects during Environment Week.

The women’s group that would later become CCPC was aware of this challenge; research was done to ascertain whether industries in nearby Hamilton would accept and pay for truckloads of home-separated tins, glass and paper, and each company answered in the affirmative. This step led to a survey with 257 neighbourhood homeowners, to gauge community interest in recyclable material collection. The results were very encouraging, and each household received instructions and was provided with sturdy paper bags provided by nearby Dominion Store.

This experimental initiative led to a wave of media attention and requests from the public that energized the women’s group to extend the original commitment of two weeks to plans for further action.

Citizens rushed to join the effort, and CCPC was born as a huge citizen action. Up to 1,000 participants participated in a multi-material, city-wide depot system for 13 years, with 21 home garages as depots and a Recycling Centre.

Naturally, there were a few early steps in the development of the CCPC recycling system. The first sign of a need to organize was the large amount of material that began to be left on the side driveway at 29 Townsend Road: the home of Roberta Golightly, the initiator of the recycling experiment, who acted as spokesperson with the media. To deal with this problem, an appeal was issued for more citizens to make their garages available as “neighbourhood depots”, on the understanding the depots would be cleared twice a week. Newspapers carried lists of the locations of depots, and the tonnages of material increased rapidly. A truck loaned by a Burlington company was used to transport the materials to markets in nearby Hamilton, then a heavy-industry city. Eventually, there were 21 depots scattered as evenly as possible throughout the city.

At the same time as the recycling system was being developed, which necessitated careful volunteer coordinating, the public turned to CCPC with other concerns about the environment; research was done, in order to educate the public and to influence government policy. The complexity of CCPC necessitated an effective organizational structure and policy development. The result was a grassroots approach with Coordinators and a variety of committees: a structure that stood the test of time for 13 years.

CCPC communicated with both the municipal and provincial governments. Perceiving the natural reluctance of the city to take on the recycling challenge at a time when there were no models for doing this, CCPC suggested a lengthy Pilot Project with 1,000 households, funded by the province and managed by the city, with CCPC volunteers doing all of the public communications. This was approved and the Burlington Waste Reclamation Project ran from August 1971, winding up in February, 1972. This was a curbside system with no containers provided, and generated a participation rate of almost 73%. Three major reports were produced by the Ontario government.

Meanwhile, CCPC’s depot system was running as usual, with the important feature of a Recycling Centre in a large unused Public Works Garage on Guelph Line, north of Highway #5. This made it possible for large industrial containers to be placed inside the building, filled and removed by truck to industries. For the entire 13 years, the work was done by volunteers, with the only exception being one summer when a grant was provided by the City of Burlington to hire a summer student on a LIP grant to assist with the large tonnages being donated.

The aim of CCPC was not to make profit, but rather to prove that citizens would participate in large enough numbers to make a difference to the chronic landfill problems, and would also be beneficial to the environment in other ways. It was the position of CPCC from the start that it had to become the responsibility of local governments, and the group was proving that the public would respond positively, even with a rather unsophisticated program.

While CCPC aimed for recycling to become the responsibility of governments, the City of Burlington assisted in various ways, but postponed initiating a municipal program while discussions were held and investigations were made about the best methods for proceeding with city-wide programs. Two CCPC leaders participated in a Mayor’s Investigative Committee (?) in the mid-1970s, to consider options. Finally, CCPC’s success, the positive “Burlington Waste Reclamation Pilot Study” of 1971-1972, and the offer of provincial funding led the City of Burlington to initiate recycling in 1981. It was the first in Canada: a contract for curbside pickup in a multimaterial, city-wide recycling program, with the first company to do the work being Halton’s Recycled Resources (HBR). A CCPC member worked as a volunteer with HRR in the two years of overlap between CCPC’s system and the municipal one, to assist with the early development of the program. The now-ubiquitous "blue box", developed and tested in Kitchener-Waterloo, was gradually introduced throughout the city. 

In 1983, CCPC closed their Recycling Centre after their 13-year effort. A current organization, Recycling Revisited, promotes this recycling history through film, hard copy, and social media as example and inspiration to “do something” about today’s environmental concerns. These ways of preserving the early history of recycling in Canada will make the CCPC story and experience as a citizen action available for future use in educational, historical and organizational settings.