HPSA and Circular Materials Launch Joint Consumer Education Initiative to Improve Recycling Across Ontario and New Brunswick

Two leading recycling organizations work together to boost awareness of what should and should not be recycled to enhance safety

TORONTO and FREDERICTON, New Brunswick, June 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Across Ontario and New Brunswick, extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs are reshaping how residents recycle and raising the stakes for getting it right. Health Products Stewardship Association (HPSA) and Circular Materials are working together to address one of the most persistent challenges that cuts across both provinces: confusion between two distinct recycling and stewardship streams that too often results in the wrong materials ending up in the wrong place.

Both organizations share a common cause: ensuring that residents in Ontario and New Brunswick have clear, accessible guidance on how to sort and manage their recyclables and health products responsibly. Circular Materials manages the blue box and curbside recycling stream for packaging and paper products. HPSA manages the specialized take-back stream for unwanted medications, natural health products, and medical sharps.

Why proper sorting matters

When materials end up in the wrong stream, the consequences extend well beyond inconvenience. Cross-contamination compromises worker safety, disrupts recycling and recovery processes, and can reduce the environmental benefits both programs are designed to deliver.

Audit data from both provinces illustrates the gap. Medical sharps, including used needles and lancets that must be returned through HPSA’s specialized take-back program, were found in 0.4 per cent of blue box samples in Ontario and 2.6 per cent in New Brunswick. While those numbers may appear small, any presence of sharps in the recycling stream creates a direct risk of injuries and hazardous material exposure for the workers handling those collections every day.

“Sorting confusion is a sign that there is opportunity to clarify and amplify guidance,” said Delphine Lagourgue, President & CEO, HPSA. “HPSA and Circular Materials are committed to doing just that. Our take-back network runs through pharmacies across both provinces, and returning medications, natural health products, and medical sharps there is free and simple. What we’re doing together is making sure residents know that option exists and understand why it matters.”

A critical moment for both provinces

Both provinces are at a significant juncture in their approach to EPR. In Ontario, a transition to a fully producer-funded blue box system introduces an expanded and unified provincial material list in 2026, meaning residents across the province will be able to recycle the same and even more materials everywhere for the first time. In New Brunswick, the province’s EPR framework continues to be strengthened, including expanding access to recycling under EPR, extending services to multi-family residences, schools and communities that previously didn’t receive curbside collection.

In both jurisdictions, HPSA and Circular Materials are treating these periods of change as an opportunity to reach residents with clear, consistent guidance covering both stewardship streams.

“Ontario and New Brunswick are both experiencing significant and exciting transformation in their recycling systems,” said Allen Langdon, CEO, Circular Materials. “Residents are navigating real change, and that’s exactly why clear, consistent guidance matters. By working alongside HPSA, we can make sure residents have the complete picture of what goes in the blue box and what doesn’t, so that residents are equipped and empowered to help make a positive impact for the environment and ensure more and more material is collected and recycled.”

The scale of what’s at stake is evident. There is a high participation of pharmacies (registered as collection locations across both provinces, with: 94.6% of pharmacies in Ontario and 92.7% in New Brunswick. In New Brunswick alone, HPSA’s take-back program collected more than 14,000 kg of unwanted medications and 22,000 kg of used medical sharps in 2025 – roughly the size of a city bus. That volume illustrates both the scale of what’s being returned correctly, and the size of what’s at stake when it isn’t.

What residents need to know

• Medications and natural health products (pills, liquids, creams): Return to a participating pharmacy or HPSA drop-off location for free
• Used medical sharps: Return in an approved sharps container to an HPSA drop-off location
• Packaging, paper, and containers: Place in your blue box / curbside recycling – learn more on your community’s dedicated webpage at circularmaterials.ca/on or circularmaterials.ca/nb.
  
  

Residents can find collection locations and program information at healthsteward.ca and circularmaterials.ca/recycle.

About the Health Products Stewardship Association (HPSA)

The Health Products Stewardship Association (HPSA) operates free take-back programs for the safe disposal of unwanted medications and used medical sharps in the provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec. In addition to helping producers fulfill their stewardship obligations, we help collecting locations implement these programs and educate consumers on how to practice safe disposal to strengthen ties across communities and the industry. Learn more at healthsteward.ca.

About Circular Materials

Circular Materials is a national not-for-profit producer responsibility organization (PRO) that supports producers in meeting their extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations in jurisdictions across Canada. Created by producers for producers, Circular Materials develops, implements and supports effective and efficient recycling programs to advance innovation, deliver improved environmental outcomes and drive value across the recycling supply chain. Together, we are advancing the circular economy where materials are collected, recycled and can be returned to producers for use as recycled content in new products and packaging. Learn more at circularmaterials.ca.

Media Contacts

Emily O’Rourke, Associate Account Director
Agnostic
eorourke@thinkagnostic.com
(905) 517 - 1330

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