Ontario is in the process of shifting the cost burden of trash away from municipalities and onto companies that make and sell products that generate waste.
With this shift — called “extended producer responsibility” — industry now bears the full costs of recycling or recovering such items as tires, batteries, light bulbs and electronics.
Under the system, companies pay fees, based on the amount of waste material they create, to businesses that manage recycling programs, known as producer responsibility organizations (PROs).
It’s up to the companies to choose whether to pass those fees on to consumers or to absorb them as a cost of doing business. The theory is that the fees provide the companies with an incentive to reduce their packaging and other waste.
For material that fills up blue boxes — including beverage containers, paper, plastic, glass and metal — the transition to industry paying the full costs only began last year and is to be completed by 2026.
Right now, companies are seeing their blue box fees shoot upward exponentially.
The government is facing corporate pressure to change Ontario’s plan that sees industry taking on the full cost of blue box recycling programs.
The industry is “trying to shirk its environmental responsibilities,”
“If producers are not paying for this packaging, it’s going to be taxpayers, it’s going to be the environment or it’s going to be human health, and that would be a massive step backwards,” Wallis said in an interview.
Ifproducers are not paying for this packaging, it’s going to be taxpayers, it’s going to be the environment or it’s going to be human healthFTFY
After reading this article I started wondering if there are any foods and products I buy that come in fully compostable packaging.
The only one I seem to be able to think of is egg cartons, but I wonder if the ink on the packaging is harmful.
Though I hope the Ontario government follows through on its decisions and holds manufactures and retailers responsible for taking back packagings and products that reach their end of life use.
pizza boxes can be composed in my community, or paper bags that have food oils in them.
A lot of whole foods can be bought without packaging. They offer plastic bags to put your veggies in, but you don’t really need them most of the time. Also, if it’s a possibility, a lot of local farmers markets tend to offer more sustainable packaging.
It would be cool if this opened up a market niche for grocers offering zero waste or fully reusable packaging.
They could do the same thing as for electronic waste: include an eco-fee that the consumer has to pay when purchasing the item and have the fee clearly labelled on the product to promote consumer awareness.
That would push manufacturers and retailers to move towards greener alternatives if that means they can reduce the amount of waste and work related to disposal, as well as reduce or eliminate the eco-fee when its no longer necessary.
That would also ensure proper disposal is paid upfront and the companies who are responsible to handle it are paid to do so.
It would be nice, though I do think with this electronics disposal program we have in Ontario we should and can always be doing more.
The eco fee that consumers pay for should be used as an incentive for consumers to bring the electronics back to the manufacturer. And i feel this is what ontario wants to do with the bluebox recycling program now.
An example would be a “community drop-off location” (like penguin pickup) run and paid for by the manufacturer and retailers. (Not tax payers). It could be collaboratively run between multiple retailers as a “recovery point” if they were smart.
The way the eco fee I believe is currently run is local governments charge a fee to manufacturers (which is passed to the consumer) for the municipality to operate their own hazardous waste pickup and disposal points. This fee is not recovered by the consumer. (The consumer is charged twice, once for the fee and other in taxes)
The beer store and lcbo for example change a recovery fee for glass bottles and aluminium cans. This fee is then recovered by the consumer and not passed on. (The consumer is only charged once in taxes).
It would be nice similar to a car battery where I am charged $20 extra on the new battery to bring back the old battery to recover my $20, and do the same for things like TVs, printers, phones, packagings, bags, containers.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Premier Doug Ford’s government is facing corporate pressure to change Ontario’s plan that sees industry taking on the full cost of blue box recycling programs, CBC News has learned.
Two organizations led by some of Canada’s biggest supermarket chains, retailers and consumer goods companies want Ontario’s blue box regulations amended, just as the industry faces a sharp rise in expenses under the transition.
On a page headlined “Next Steps,” a sentence in bold reads: “Recommend producers reach out to their government representatives to share their concerns on the impact of fees in Ontario as a result of the current Blue Box Regulation.”
Allen Langdon, the chief executive of Circular Materials, says companies were expecting fees to double in the transition to taking over blue box costs but are “incredibly concerned” that the increases are turning out to be even larger.
“Last year, we held consultations to be responsive to industry feedback and identify ways the government can minimize administrative burden and maintain program continuity,” said Khanjin’s press secretary Alex Catherwood in an email.
Parallel to all this, the government is consulting with industry stakeholders specifically about ways to recover and recycle non-alcoholic beverage containers, including soft drink cans, water bottles and juice cartons.
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