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The current Blue Box Program, administered by Stewardship Ontario, is in its final years of operation. The program will be replaced by a new regulatory version where producers will be responsible for the collection and end-of-life management of the products and packaging they generate. The transition to the new model will take place over 5 years.
Since we take care of your reporting, you don’t have to do anything. We will of course continue to keep you informed of any upcoming changes. Moreover, a regulation proposal was presented in October 2020 for consultation up until December 3rd. The regulation provides a new framework for waste diversion and resource recovery in a way that costs will be transferred from municipalities and taxpayers to producers. This model encourages producers to find new and innovative ways to reduce costs and improve the environmental management of recyclable materials.
Important note, the regulation would expand collection requirements to include other materials commonly thrown in the recycling bins by residents:
The Fee Setting Methodology is transitioning to Material Cost Differentiation (MCD) fee setting methodology from Activity Based Costing methodology. The MCD methodology is viewed to be more accurate in allocation of costs. Thus for 2021, the program boards approved a phased implementation using a 50/50 split of the two methodologies to calculate fee rates.
An increase in fee costs is observed for all provinces concerned, the table below represents the average increases.
The materials most affected by the increases are glass, printed material, corrugated and flat cardboard, aluminum, and steel.
Delays are piling up for the year 2020. Thus, 2021 will be a full year for producers. The timeline for the 2020 report (if published in mid-December) will be around mid-February with a first installment in mid- March and the final installment in mid-May. Then, if no delay is reported, the 2021 report would be maintained for July with a first installment in September and the second and last installment in November. Meaning producers will be paying for two consecutive years in one. In addition, due to a 20% drop in printed matter and a 4% increase in containers and packaging, the average fee will increase an average of 15.7%.
On a lighter note, a pilot project with a $1 million envelop aimed at recognizing an eco-design approach towards packaging with an incentive bonus (up to $25,000 per company) will be launched in 2021. For the moment, the criteria have not been released. However, eco-designed packaging that have been marketed in 2019 and 2020 will be eligible.
More details to be released at the beginning of 2021.
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