This was the ninth year the REOI was released to encourage municipalities to undertake new effectiveness and efficiency projects. To date, the CIF has invested over $58.5 million in initiatives that have had a direct and positive impact on the Blue Box program.
CIF received a strong response again this year with more than 40 applications requesting $7.4 million in funding to support $36 million of investment. As it stands, the REOI budget is oversubscribed by more than $3.8M. The following table presents the projects by the three priority areas CIF solicited:
| Priority Area | Budget | Subscribed | Difference | Applications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| System Optimization | $500,000 | 334,200 | 165,800 | 4 |
| Cost Savings & Cost Containment | $1,000,000 | 5,243,000 | (4,243,000) | 7 |
| Centre of Excellence | $2,135,000 | 1,869,000 | 266,000 | 30 |
| Total | $3,635,000 | 7,446,200 | (3,811,200) | 41 |
Key Take-Away:
The applications appear to target two of the primary issues facing municipalities today, with respect to difficulty marketing materials and preparing for transition from the current Blue Box program.
Dealing with troublesome markets
The Cost Savings & Cost Containment priority area is oversubscribed by more than $4.2 million above the $1 million budget. The majority of this amount is accounted for by three MRF retrofit projects which represent investments meant to tackle changes in the material mix and specification requirements by end markets. These projects appear to present strong business cases for reducing system costs, but the combined request is greater than the entire REOI budget for 2018.
Recent CIF Blogs on Materials & Markets:
- CIF Looks at the Pros and Cons of Black Plastic in Residential Recycling (June 4, 2018)
- Market Trends for Post-Consumer Plastics (May 11, 2018)
- BRA Addresses Paper Quality Issues to Protect End Markets (April 4, 2018)
- Commodity Market Trends (September 6, 2017)
- The Challenges of Gable Top and Aseptic Container Recycling (July 28, 2017)
Additionally, numerous municipalities have also reached out to CIF requesting contract development and management support in light of current market conditions.
Preparing for transition to Full Producer Responsibility
In previous years, applications for Transitional Support were dominated by requests to understand program costs either through full cost accounting or activity based accounting studies (see our website for more on this). CIF staff continue to receive interest in the models available and in development, but this year CIF received more than a dozen applications for waste composition studies. We also received several asks for support in understanding methodologies to determine (statistically) representative samples for their communities.
The Timeline for Awards
CIF staff are busy working with proponents on optimizing and evaluating their applications. Project grants are expected to be announced this fall, so stay tuned to learn more about the project ideas that have been put forth by your peers to improve our provincial Blue Box program!
Contact CIF Staff
Although the REOI application period has closed, staff are available to help with any questions, issues or ideas you may have. Further, with the growing momentum surrounding the CIF working groups in Multi-Res, MRFs, and Depots there are lots of opportunity to pursue meaningful changes for your programs.
Please contact any member of the CIF team for assistance – we are here to help!
Heads-up!
Soon the CIF and Stewardship Ontario will publish the second year of jointly funded waste composition study data on the CIF Waste Composition Study Page