In a circular economy, manufacturers design products to be reusable. Canada needs a circular economy that is restorative and regenerative by design, and that aims to redefine products and services to design waste out. We can re-design the way our economy works by designing products and services that limit consumption, improve the value materials, and protect resources. Circular business models will prove essential for businesses that want to be future-proof in a society where resource constraints are a growing problem and consumer attitudes are shifting towards alternatives for ownership and consumption. 

Did you know the average person throws away 37 kilograms of textiles (clothing or fabric) every year, and 95% of those clothes could have been reused or recycled? Textile waste has increased dramatically due to the rise in clothing consumption and production. This can be attributed to the rise of fast fashion, with quicker turnaround of new styles and lower prices. Canadians on average purchase 70 new articles of clothing every year.

Plastics and textiles go hand in hand: every time we use synthetic materials like polyester and nylon, tiny plastics break off and up to 40% of these microfibers end up as ocean plastics. If we only washed what really needs to be washed, we could decrease the amount of microfibers entering our waterways and materials will last longer. To put it in perspective, it takes 2,600 litres of water just to make one new t-shirt.

In Oxford County, you can recycle textiles at the Oxford County Waste Management Facility at 384060 Salford Road in Salford. City of Woodstock residents can also dispose of e-waste at the City of Woodstock EnviroDepot located at 944 James Street.  

The total amount of electronic waste reached a whopping 53.6 million metric tonnes globally last year. As technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, electronic waste will quickly become the fastest growing waste in the world. E-waste contains hazardous materials. Over time, electronics can leak toxic elements, like mercury and lead, which can be harmful to the environment and humans. Donating your electronics for reuse or recycling them at safely managed sites helps control those hazards. Recycling also allows reliable resources found in electronics, recyclable plastics and even gold to be reclaimed.

In Oxford County, you can safely dispose of e-waste at the electronic waste depot at the Oxford County Waste Management Facility at 384060 Salford Road in Salford. City of Woodstock residents can also dispose of e-waste at the City of Woodstock EnviroDepot located at 944 James Street. You can also donate your old mobile phone through CNIB’s Phone it Forward website at phoneitforward.ca to be repurposed for people with sight loss who need them.  

An estimated 8 million tonnes of plastics ends up in our oceans every year: this is the equivalent of garbage truck full of plastic every minute. By 2050, it’s estimated there will be more plastics in the ocean than fish, by weight. Approximately 40% of the plastic produced each year is packaging, used once and thrown away. Everyone has a role to play to reduce plastic waste and to tackle plastic pollution, this includes governments, companies, the recycling industries and individuals. Using recycled or post-consumer resin plastic (PCR) as a resource for new product inputs displaces the need to create virgin plastic made from fossil fuels. This is a key aspect of the circular economy where the value of plastics at end-of-life are kept in the economy and never lost to disposal or the environment.

Oxford County started a film plastic recycling program in 2020 at four depot locations: Waste Management Facility, Tillsonburg Transfer Station, Beachville Fire Hall and the Woodstock EnviroDepot. Like many municipalities, Oxford County no longer accepts plastic film as part of its municipal Blue Box Program due to the limited availability of recycling end markets for this type of material. As well, these materials are generally problematic and can damage mechanical recyclable processing equipment and easily contaminate other recyclables. The more material rejected through the recycling process, the more material is ultimately sent to the landfill.

Although the municipal blue box program is no longer a viable option for plastic film recycling,  depots were established to allow Oxford County residents a place to drop off film plastic at any of the four locations identified above, free of charge.

The program aims to determine how much film plastic can be separated from the waste stream and ultimately diverted from the landfill.

It is estimated that individuals and households waste more than $10 billion worth of food every year in Canada alone. Globally, if food waste could be represented as its own country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind China and the U.S.

Finding ways to limit food waste was a key theme in the recent Future Oxford Speaker Series “Go Organic - Rot and Rescue.” You can watch those presentations and learn valuable ways to reuse and rescue food waste in your home through the Future Oxford website. Oxford County is also home to the Great Pumpkin Rescue: learn more at https://www.facebook.com/greatpumpkinrescue

Millions of Canadians engage in the sharing economy everyday through ride sharing apps, libraries, rental services, online music/video streaming and more. Purchasing items through a buy and sell, at a garage sale or flea market is another way we make contributions to a circular society without even realizing it. 

Swap and Repair Sunday shows Canadians how simple it can be to extend the life of everyday products, and encourages them to take part in events in their community, school, or workplace to find new life for their unwanted or damaged products and textiles.