Recycling where it means the most

Perhaps the initiative is still in the planning stages, but Groupe Convex’s plans to bid on collecting recyclable materials from three municipalities needs some reflection.
The three municipalities which currently form the Hawkesbury Regional Recycling Committee are the Town of Hawkesbury, the Township of Champlain and the Township of East Hawkesbury. These municipalities currently operate vehicles to collect recyclable materials and then deliver them to RARE in Alexandria. RARE stands for Recyclage Alexandria Recycling Equipe. According to its website, RARE provides training and job opportunities for challenged individuals of our communities.
Groupe Convex, according to its website, has a mission of generating meaningful jobs, through business projects, for Prescott-Russell’s residents who face employment challenges.
It seems as if the plan is for Groupe Convex to study the issues before it bids on the collection contract, although it has already been stated that its enterprise   called Recycle-Action plans to match the current $58 tipping fee at RARE in Alexandria. Groupe Convex would collect the recyclable materials which would be taken elsewhere for processing and treatment.
Groupe Convex, a non-profit organization based in Hawkesbury, already has several successful enterprises under its umbrella, including Hawkesbury Antiques, Express Net, The Harvesters, Café Le Plateau, Gold & Spices, Woodshop Casselman, Prescott-Russell Packaging, Charles Printing and Recycle-Action.  On its website, you can also see the list of partners, which includes private enterprise and Industry Canada, Employment Ontario and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, to name just a few government organizations.
It is difficult to put a value on creating viable employment for those with employment challenges and one can be sure that for each of these enterprises, there will be privately-owned competing businesses that will challenge their existence, especially as they operate under the auspices of a non-profit organization and may possibly undercut private businesses.
Having the non-profit Groupe Convex compete with RARE in Alexandria by matching RARE’s price doesn’t seem like a move that will benefit taxpayers or challenged people seeking employment. One can imagine that if the recycling contract is picked up by Groupe Convex in a year or so and jobs are created here, there will be a parallel job loss in Alexandria.
If, on the other hand, Groupe Convex fills a need such as its recent initiative to collect electronic waste, that might be worth exploring. Perhaps it could offer this service beyond its present market area. Or here’s an idea to consider: how about expanding its cardboard and fine paper recycling offer to commercial and business enterprises throughout the three municipalities? Commercial recycling has remained beyond reach for our three area municipalities; perhaps the non-profit sector could come up with an offer to suit the Hawkesbury Regional Recycling Committee’s budget. (Groupe Convex currently collects plastic and cardboard from more than 100 industrial and commercial clients.)
Perhaps all the information is not available yet. But we can only hope that valuable resources are used to formulate plans that benefit the greatest number for the longest-term sustainability. When public funds are part of the big picture, taxpayers need to know that our tax dollars are not being used to pit competing programs against each other, no matter how green a project may sound.