Producers to Pay for Packaging and Recycling

(Purchasing B2B)

New Ontario plan mirrors others across the country

The Ontario government announced a proposal in October to make producers responsible for packaging and end-of-life products. The plan would amend the Waste Diversion Act to require producers – meaning manufacturers, brand owners or first importers – to reclaim and recycle products, and report on their progress every year.

The program isn’t unique to Ontario. On the west coast, BC is asking producers to take back small appliances at their end of life, effective July 2010. Saskatchewan is working on a program to shift part of the cost of packaging recycling to producers. Other provinces have their own version of extended producer responsibility (EPR). […]

“The issue for producers is it’s not federally-mandated. So all of us are having to manage individual programs from individual provinces and individual supply chain infrastructures, and it’s all very complicated,” said Warrington Ellacott, senior manager of government relations with Whirlpool Canada. “I can remember a conversation with a national retailer who has 1,800 designated SKUs in BC, Quebec, Ontario and soon to be Manitoba and Saskatchewan… and they’re not compliant.” […]

“You have to figure out if you’re designated, and when is the rollout,” Ellacott advised. “You have to pay attention to the ‘producer’ definition, because it varies by province.” Some provinces place the onus on retailers to recover product, while others leave it up to manufacturers, importers and distributors to work it out for themselves. Read more here.