{"id":9598,"date":"2025-12-30T16:58:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T20:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9598"},"modified":"2025-12-30T16:58:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T20:58:16","slug":"confusion-frustration-over-new-recycling-rules-in-queens-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/12\/30\/confusion-frustration-over-new-recycling-rules-in-queens-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Confusion, frustration over new recycling rules in Queens County"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Queens County residents will have to drop off styrofoam packaging and potato chip bags at recycling depots. (Jonas Gerlach via Unsplash)<\/p><\/div>\n

Queens County residents aren\u2019t the only ones confused and frustrated by new recycling rules.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayor Scott Christian says he\u2019s upset too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI’m getting a lot of feedback from residents,\u201d he told QCCR in an interview Tuesday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, ‘we’re getting less service. Our taxes are high, we’re getting less services,’ and I agree with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my perspective, it doesn’t make any sense for our residents to have to take some of the recyclable materials like styrofoams and aerosol cans and chip liners to Caledonia. I cannot understand that. So I’m going to continue to engage with the province and sort of hold Circular Materials feet to the flames around this. I think they weren’t prepared for the Dec. 1 takeover.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As of Dec. 1, new regulations from the Nova Scotia government shifted responsibility for sorting recyclables and other packaging to the companies that produce it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Municipalities around Nova Scotia closed their sorting facilities and switched to a company called Circular Materials.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a non-profit group made up of some of the world\u2019s biggest producers of waste, like McDonald\u2019s, Pepsico and Nestle Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Region of Queens said residents would see no changes in how recyclables are collected.<\/span><\/p>\n

But over the Christmas holidays, residents received information that there will be changes. For example, things like styrofoam packaging, potato chip bags, candy wrappers and aerosol cans will no longer be collected as part of the regular garbage pickup. Those things used to be considered garbage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, according to information from Circular Materials, those items will have to be cleaned and dropped off at certain recycling depots around the province.<\/span><\/p>\n

On an interactive map on the Circular Materials website<\/a>, there are no locations listed for Queens County, though some residents have said Caledonia is the closest location. The closest listed on the map are in Lunenburg and New Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t understand how we’re doing anything environmentally conscious by having people drive chip bags to Caledonia,” Christian said. “So I just share the residents\u2019 frustrations around the changes to the recyclables.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian said he expected Circular Materials to provide the same level of service and convenience that the region had. He said he doesn\u2019t understand why the Queens Enviro Centre in Brooklyn<\/a> isn\u2019t one of the drop-off locations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eight employees were given layoff notices in September<\/a> when the region announced it would be closing its recycling depot. Municipal officials have said they would try to find other jobs for those workers with the municipality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian said he\u2019s worried that the new rules will be counter-productive and lead to more illegal dumping and burning of plastics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He said he\u2019ll continue pushing for answers from Queens MLA Kim Masland and other provincial officials.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my perspective, the province has to hold Circular Materials to account in terms of the system that they’re standing up to ensure that it isn’t leading to potential unintended negative consequences, like illegal dumping, like burning of garbage, like putting recyclable materials in the garbage. The way that they’ve set it out, I don’t understand it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere can’t be additional costs or inconveniences to the consumer. The whole thing is, the producer\u2019s responsible. So if the producer’s responsible, they need to do it in a way that doesn’t download any of that responsibility or cost or inconvenience onto the consumer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the recycling revisions, Queens has also changed its garbage collection rules. Residents will now have to put their trash out in clear bags. People are allowed one black privacy bag.<\/span><\/p>\n

The municipality is giving residents until July to make the transition from opaque to clear bags. So, people can continue to use green or black bags for garbage until then.<\/span><\/p>\n

Information on the new garbage and recycling rules is available on the Region of Queens website<\/a> .<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/strong><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/newrecyclingrulesdec3025.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queens County residents aren\u2019t the only ones confused and frustrated by new recycling rules. Mayor Scott Christian says he\u2019s upset too. \u201cI’m getting a lot of feedback from residents,\u201d he told QCCR in an interview Tuesday.\u00a0 \u201cYou know, ‘we’re getting less service. Our taxes are high, we’re getting less services,’ and I agree with them. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9601,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598\/revisions\/9601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}