 Niagara Recycling's history dates back to 1974 when the Niagara Training and Employment Agency located in Port Robinson, Ontario began a recycling program to provide training and employment for developmentally challenged adults. The operation became incorporated as the Niagara Training and Employment Agency (NTEC) on Nov. 3, 1978. Not long after this the name Niagara Recycling was chosen.
In 1989, 10 years after recycling began in Niagara, the Blue Box program expanded from the urban streetscape to the rural countryside of the Niagara Region. A year later, Niagara Recycling working with the four school boards and the Ministry of the Environment brought the Student Action for Recycling (STAR) program to the Niagara Region. Recycling had become well-established in the Niagara Region.
In 2003, new grey box programs were launched in the West Lincoln area. By 2004, the entire regional curbside program included both the blue and grey boxes.
Today the name Niagara Recycling has become synonymous with the recycling program in the Niagara Region. |
At first, collection was limited to curbside collection of newspaper that residents would request via telephone. But, early in 1979 we began monthly curbside newspaper collection by ward. Shortly after, glass bottles, jars and steel cans were added to the collection service decreasing the amount of waste going to landfills. Then, later that same year, twice-monthly collection began and recycling collection became linked to regular garbage collection days.
The first residential curbside recycling program was started in the Town of Pelham in 1985. The success of this program set a precedent for similar programs that followed through the '80s. By October 1986, the operation had expanded to a multi-material curbside program using Niagara Recycling vehicles in Thorold, Port Colborne, Welland, Pelham, and Niagara Falls. The first PET (plastic) curbside collection program in Ontario began in Pelham in the mid '80s.
