Orange Drop
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What Happens to my Waste?

What Happens to my Waste?

Roll over each stage to learn more.

Stewards
The brand owners, franchisers, importers and manufacturers that sell materials to the marketplace.
Safe Disposal
Materials which cannot be recycled are managed through safe disposal, such as secure landfill or energy from waste.
Resuse
  • Steel is recovered from pressurized containers and oil filters.
  • Dirty oil is recovered from filters and used to make new oil.
  • Plastic is recovered from oil and antifreeze containers and turned into new plastics.
  • Single-use batteries are a source of metal, plastic and micro nutrients for a fertilizer to grow corn.
  • Antifreeze is distilled to recover glycol so that it can be used again.
Waste Generators
Households and businesses create waste once the materials are no longer useful.
Orange Drop-Off Locations

Stewardship Ontario has a network of over 16,000 locations throughout Ontario, including:

  • Municipal Depots and Events
  • Retail Locations
  • Automotive Service Centres
  • Campgrounds
  • Libraries
  • Community Centres
  • Other Publicly Accessible Spaces
Processing

Materials are processed to recover and make use of their physical, chemical or biological properties.

  • Dirty oil is recovered from filters and used to make new oil.
  • Plastic is recovered from oil and antifreeze containers and turned into new plastics.
  • Single-use batteries are a source of metal, plastic and micro nutrients for a fertilizer to grow corn.
  • Antifreeze is distilled to recover glycol so that it can be used again.
Transportation
Transporters move waste to its next destination for reuse, recycling or safe disposal.




Videos

What
Happens to
my Waste?

The Orange Drop program safely manages five materials to end-of-life, diverting harmful substances from landfill and waterways. Many of the materials collected through the Orange Drop Program, such as pressurized containers and batteries are reprocessed, refurbished or reused to make new products—easing the demand for energy and virgin resources.

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Event Calendar

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About Us

The five materials in the Orange Drop program are managed by Stewardship Ontario (batteries & pressurized containers) and Automotive Materials Stewardship (antifreeze, oil containers and oil filters).

Stewardship Ontario and Automotive Materials Stewardship are both not-for-profit organizations funded and governed by the industries that are the brand owners, first importers or franchisors of the products and packaging materials managed under our recycling programs.

At Orange Drop, we strive to find new ways to turn today’s waste into tomorrow’s consumer products.

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Blog

Wind up of the Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste (MHSW) Program
Blog Post

October 29, 2019 - On April 12, 2018, the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change issued direction to Stewardship Ontario to wind up the Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste (MHSW) Program by December 31, 2020. Upon wind up, materials collected under the MHSW Program will be managed according to an individual producer responsibility (IPR) framework under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016. On December 11, 2018, the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) amended the timelines for the wind up of single-use batteries, stating the waste diversion program for single-use batteries would cease operation on June 30, 2020 to allow for coordination with waste electrical and electronic equipment. On July 2, 2019, Stewardship Ontario received further direction from the MECP regarding the wind up of the MHSW Program. The new direction letter amendments are summarized below: The program to manage all designated materials except single-use batteries will now cease operation on June 30, 2021 instead of December 31, 2020. The program to manage single-use batteries will continue to cease operation on June 30, 2020. Stewardship Ontario is to develop a proposal to return surplus funds to Ontario consumers of MHSM in its proposed Wind Up Plan: For MHSM categories whose recovery is managed by Stewardship Ontario, the plan will set out rules governing a fee elimination during the wind up period; For MHSM categories that are managed through industry stewardship p

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