Mr. Speaker, I ask hon. members of the House to join with me today in recognizing the 20th anniversary of Ontario's blue box recycling program.
The blue box was the brainchild of Kitchener resident Nyle Ludolph, a garbage collector with Laidlaw, who helped launch the program in 1981. Two hundred and fifty Kitchener homes received the first blue boxes and the program was soon expanded to 34,000 homes.
Ontario residents were eager to make use of the blue box in their efforts to reduce, recycle and reuse. Today approximately four million Ontario households have curb or depot access to recycling. In 1999 successful recycling helped divert 658,000 tonnes of waste from Ontario landfill sites.
The blue box idea has been adopted by numerous homes throughout Canada, the United States, France, Australia and the U.K. Recycling is one of the simple ways Canadians can build a healthier and cleaner environment.
I ask hon. members of the House to join me in recognizing this important anniversary.