A burgeoning debt load faced by the Northwestern Ontario Recycling Association (NORA) means the agency will hand over their largely inefficient collection system to a private contractor. It creates some breathing room for NORA to recover from a steadily growing burden of having to replacing aging trucks and deal with other debt problems. Delays in government funding, the cost of replacing deteriorating equipment plus the $500,000 needed to upgrade their Dryden processing plant meant NORA needed to study alternatives. Recool Inc. of Thunder Bay will continue with residential driveway collection while commercial operators will have to negotiate their own contracts with the company.
NORA is disposing of its assets of trucks, blue boxes, and the Dryden plant but will maintain an office to co-ordinate recycling and handle waste-diversion funding. NORA is collecting from area municipalities to repay its debt.
