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.
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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