The government of the Prime Minister of Ontario Doug Ford proposes to weaken an imminent list of new recycling rules because the producers of materials have said that the system becomes too expensive.
The province began to pass in 2023 to producers to pay for the recycling of their packaging, paper and single -use items. Companies’ obligations were to increase next year, but the government is now seeking to delay certain measures and to cancel others, such as the requirements to extend the collection beyond the residential system.
The environmental defenders claim that the proposed changes have made it possible to trigger and signify that more materials will be found in the landfills or will be cremated. Producers say that despite the increase in costs, recycling rates do not really seem to improve, so it is time for a wider rethink.
The Minister of the Environment, Todd McCarthy, said that the proposed changes aimed to ensure the sustainability of the Blue Box system and to protect against the unforeseen consequences such as job losses.
“We want to take what we have done and improve what already exists, but costs were a big problem, and we therefore offer certain measures that would cause cost savings, transparency and improvement to achieve the recycling goal we all want,” he said earlier this month.
The Canadian Retail Council estimates that producers’ costs have already increased by around 350% in three years and would be almost overtaken this year to the next one if no modification has been made to the new imminent rules for 2026.
The government claims that the costs of collecting blue boxes could more than double between 2020 and 2030.
“The cost increases of this magnitude were not provided when the regulations were adopted in 2021 and endangered the stability of the Blue Box system today,” he said in his proposal to modify the rules.
Currently, producers only have to make “best efforts” to achieve certain percentages of recycling rates, such as 80% of paper and 50% of rigid plastic, and from next year, they should be enforceable. Then, in 2030, these percentages should increase.
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But now the government proposes to delay these objectives from 2026 until 2031.
In addition, Ontario offers to authorize non -recyclable materials which are cremated to count up to 15% of the recycling objectives of producers.
From next year, producers are also supposed to be responsible for collecting equipment in more residential buildings and certain long -term care homes, retirement homes and schools. The government now proposes to completely remove this requirement.
The same goes for a rule that would have made producers responsible for containers not only in a residential blue box, but also those used outside the house, and a provision for producers to widen the collection in public spaces.
The intention behind initial regulations was to encourage producers to use less packaging and to use materials that can more easily be recycled, said Karen Wirsig, senior program manager for plastics with environmental defense.
These changes would stop any progress on this score, she said.
“Municipalities have been saying for years:” Our blue box is becoming more and more filled with types of packaging that we cannot even identify and even less to sort properly … because they are often made with mixed materials that are not easily recycled “,” said Wirsig.
“So, because there was this disconnection between producers who design all these packaging and the municipalities that collect it, there was no way to rationalize the system and improve the packaging from an environmental and sustainability point of view.
The recycling of flexible plastics, which includes food wraps, sachets and bags, is a particular contention apple and the government offers both to delay and reduce the target for this category.
In a recycling installation, flexible plastics are found in all kinds of places because they are so light, finding themselves stuck among the paper or falling through the conveyor’s stitches, said Michael Zabaneh, vice-president of the sustainability of the retail council of Canada.
Instead of a recycling target of 25% by entering into force next year, an objective of five percent will come into force in 2031 as part of the Flexible Plastic Government Proposal.
That five percent reflect the current estimated level of flexible plastic diversion, according to the regulatory proposal of the government. It is silent on current levels for all other materials.
These current levels are unknown, the productivity of resources and the recovery authority claiming that it will bring in rates once the three -year transition is completed. It’s a big problem, said Zabaneh.
“We are all in the blind,” he said. “I think you cannot have a recycling system with responsibility, (and do not have) transparency and real data.”
The main problem with the current government system is that it authorizes several administrators, said Zabaneh. Producers are registered with producers’ responsibility organizations, who help them respect their blue box obligations.
There are four of these organizations operating in Ontario, which ends up complicating the system and making it more expensive, said Zabaneh.
“There is an administrative organization to conduct collection, but treatment is a kind of competition, and this creates a very fragmented and ineffective system,” he said.
“It limits planning, it prevents collective investment, capital investment, so it is casual, and you have a lot of additional costs of logistics and audits, and that is why we have increased costs.”
The members of the Retail Council helped to found and seats on the board of directors of an organization of producers’ responsibility so that they have an idea of recycling rates from this, and on the basis of this limited vision, the figures seem stagnant, according to the council.
The producers welcome delayed targets, said Zabaneh, but that does not solve the basic problem. Having an organization of unique producer responsibility would reduce costs and allow greater transparency in recycling rates and financial performance, according to the detail council.
The president of the Canadian Boisson Association Krista Scaldwell said their members wanted the system to succeed because recycling and restoration companies as well as the environment.
“We want aluminum and plastic to be aluminum because we can make new containers,” she said.
“Members are very attached to sustainability initiatives, and we must therefore understand what creates the cost so that we can help support a change, so we can see improved recovery without increasing costs.”
Comments on the proposal of the regulatory register can be submitted until July 21.