Waste and recycling

The Government of Yukon is proposing changes to the Air Emissions Regulations to:

A new Contaminants Regulation will repeal and replace the existing Contaminated Sites Regulation and the Spills Regulation. The government is proposing a new Contaminants Regulation to better ensure:

We're working towards a sustainable solid waste management system for the Yukon.

• modernizing facilities across the Yukon to reduce operational and environmental risks;
• investing in regional agreements with our municipal partners; and 
• investing in upgrades to the facilities.

Upcoming changes

Specifically, we're looking to create household waste disposal options that are: 

Our current recycling system is fragile and financially unsustainable.

To help solve this issue, we're adopting extended producer responsibility, which means large producers that sell products and packaging will be responsible for the recycling or disposal of it.

The 3 priority product categories are:

The purpose of this engagement is to gather feedback on how to best implement a ban on single-use plastic and paper shopping bags.

We are modernizing Yukon’s recycling system by amending the Designated Materials Regulation. The changes will apply surcharges on electronic and electrical products at the point of purchase. The surcharges you already pay on new tires will change and new tire categories will be added. The goal of these changes is to encourage people to take their old tires, electronics and electrical items to the landfill or recycling depot and keep these items out of Yukon’s wild spaces, while also balancing the needs of retailers and businesses.

The Government of Yukon recognizes the impact of plastic waste and has committed, along with federal, provincial and territorial environment ministers, to work towards significant reductions in waste disposal and zero plastic waste in Canada.
One way in which the Yukon government is helping decrease plastic waste is through a proposed surcharge on single-use shopping bags received at point-of-sale.

This is one of many steps that the Government of Yukon is planning to take to improve the territory’s recycling system and make it more sustainable.