More than 70 Sudbury streets face blue box, green bin collection delays

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Recycling, compost collection delays in Sudbury

Sudbury's Blue Box service changes Jan. 1 with minimal impact to residents

Some Greater Sudbury residents were getting their blue boxes and organics bins emptied 24 hours after they put them to the curb.

There were delays with recycling and organics collection in some neighbourhoods this week and conflicting reasons why.

In an email to CTV News, the City of Greater Sudbury said it was aware some neighbourhoods experienced delays with blue box and green cart collection this week.

“These delays are related to unexpected truck breakdowns experienced by WM, which resulted in some routes not being collected on their scheduled day. Crews are working overtime, repairing trucks and bringing in additional trucks to catch up,” a city spokesperson wrote.

It was Jan. 1 when new provincial changes came into effect, with the program transferring to a producer responsibility model.

That’s when Circular Materials, a not-for-profit organization responsible for administering Ontario’s new recycling program, took over the work using Waste Management or WM as the contractor to collect recyclables in Sudbury.

“Extreme weather resulted in minor delays to recycling collection for several households in Greater Sudbury yesterday,” said Jennifer Kerr, the director of community and media relations for Circular Materials, in a statement to CTV News on Thursday.

They posted a service alert for Greater Sudbury on their website Thursday morning, listing more than 70 streets.

The city said it does not have a count of how many households were affected by the delay this week.

Officials have said that routes missed one day are being collected the following day – but that’s created a domino effect on subsequent routes, with all routes expected to be caught up by Saturday.

Service alerts for green cart collection delays are shared through the city’s Waste Wise app. Residents are encouraged to download the app, enter their address and enable notifications.

Questions, collection concerns or requests for new or replacement blue boxes can be directed to Waste Management at 1-800-561-1655 or via email.