City recycling collection changes Wednesday
Non-profit Circular Materials taking over recycling collection
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Saint John’s recycling program is changing as of Wednesday.
As of May 1, Recycling in New Brunswick is now the responsibility of Circular Materials, a non-profit working on behalf of industry producers under the province’s new extended producer responsibility program for paper and packaging products.
At Saint John city council’s meeting Monday, Coun. Gary Sullivan said he’d received a number of questions about the changeover and asked for an explanation from city staff. Michael Hugenholtz, the city’s commissioner of public works, explained recycling, which had been collected by the city since October of 2022, will now switch over to Circular Materials and their contractor, Miller Waste.
Changes as part of the switch include that recycling, currently collected in the evenings, will now be collected at night, and the collection day will be switching for about 50 per cent of households, Hugenholtz said. Areas that would be picked up Tuesday night will still be set for Tuesday evening, he said.
On a map posted online, areas listed as “week 1” have pickup May 1, and areas listed “week 2” are planned for May 6. First up on Wednesday include the Ellerdale Street area, Forest Hills, and parts of Rothesay Road, Hugenholtz said. Some residents have been using an app called ReCollect where they can type in their address to find their pickup days, which is still the best place to look, he said.
Questions regarding recycling pickup are best suited to go to Miller Waste at 1-833-644-1163, according to Hugenholtz.
Mayor Donna Reardon called the new program “fabulous,” in an interview April 15, saying council had a chance to discuss the new program and were “good with it.”
Circular Materials began phase one of their recycling program for eight municipalities that opted in to contracting to perform collection work in November, none of which were in the Fundy Regional Service Commission, Brunswick News reported at the time. That put Saint John among those municipalities switching over May 1.
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