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Jones gains allies in effort to promote used aggregate

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Published on Thursday, 15 August 2013 06:59
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Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones’ private member's bill aimed at promoting recycled aggregate is gaining momentum.

Jones introduced Bill 56, the Aggregate Recycling Promotion Act, in April.  

Since then, her proposal has received an endorsement from Melancthon Mayor Bill Hill, as well as the Ontario Road Builders Association.

“The Ontario Road Builders are quite keen on it,” Jones said. “They have a lot of the stockpile they are not able to incorporate into bids.”

While Hill heralded the bill as an opportunity to save farmland from aggregate extraction, the road builders association said new technologies allow used asphalt to be recycled into a high quality product.

“Bill 56 takes an important step forward to get municipalities and other public sector bodies to consider the use of recycled materials,” Geoff Wilkinson, executive director of the Ontario Road Builders’ Association, said in a news release.

As the review of the Aggregate Resources Act nears its conclusion, Jones said her fellow all-party committee members understand her used rock.

“They see the value in encouraging recycling,” she said.

Bill 56 would allow contractors to use recycled aggregate when bidding on construction projects paid for with public money. Jones believes the bill would also encourage the reuse of aggregate in private construction projects.

“The product has already been mined and can’t go to a landfill site,” Jones said.  “It’s there. Why aren’t we using it?”

Ontario is currently home to stockpiles of millions of tons of aggregate. Jones says those piles grow daily.

Jones plans to call the bill for a second reading in September.

Although the idea is proposed as legislation, Jones said the government might adopt promoting reuse of aggregate.

“There may be other ways they can encourage municipalities to change their bidding process to ensure recycled product is incorporated,” she said.  “Even if the government adopts it, at least it will get done.”

By Bill Tremblay

Published in the Orangeville Banner, Aug. 15, 2013