A surge in online shopping in the age of COVID-19 is taking its toll on recycling programs.
The City of Nanaimo reported Monday that its residents are discarding more waste than in the past — particularly large numbers of cardboard boxes that are jamming compactors on collection trucks and causing delays.
“That’s been a big increase,” said John Elliot, director of public works. “Obviously, we attribute that to online shopping and people getting packages delivered to their houses.”
Statistics Canada has reported that retail e-commerce sales reached an all-time high of $3.9 billion in May, a 2.3 per cent increase over April and nearly double February’s sales figures.
The record gains happened even as total retail sales fell by nearly 18 per cent from February to May, the agency said.
Nanaimo officials say the boxes used to deliver all those products are ending up at the curbside and that some residents are failing to flatten or break them down to a manageable size.
As a result, full-sized boxes are jamming the compacting equipment on collection trucks, and forcing drivers to make more frequent trips to the depot to empty their loads.
Nanaimo says that’s leading to delays and more late-night and next-day pick-ups as well as increased costs, operating time, pollution and vehicle maintenance.
It’s such a concern that Nanaimo issued a statement Monday reminding residents to follow the recycling guidelines and break down, flatten or fold cardboard packaging so that its dimensions are less than two feet or 60 centimetres.
“We know that city of Nanaimo residents are passionate about recycling and we’re encouraging them to refer to our website,” Elliot said. “There’s lots of information there.”
The Capital Regional District, meanwhile, is noticing more material ending up in blue boxes as well. On average, the curbside recycling program picked up 12 per cent more material per month from March to May than it did in 2019, a CRD report shows. The overall figure included a 37 per cent increase in glass containers.
“While the reasons for these increases cannot be exactly determined, it is reasonable to assume that with restaurants having been largely closed during the pandemic, residents have been having more meals at home and packaging associated with preparing those meals has been recycled at the curb,” the report says.
“An increase in online purchasing may also have contributed to an increase in packaging materials being recycled through the blue box program.”
Russ Smith, senior manager of environmental resource management, said the CRD has been able to absorb the increase within its existing recycling program.
“We have a fairly flexible system, and they will always go later in the day if there are extra materials,” he said. “I don’t know that that extra 10 or 12 per cent has had significant impacts on their timing.
“We certainly haven’t had complaints in terms of missed pickups or additional delays.”
