Ministry of Environment

Packaging is defined in the Environmental Management Act as:
“a material, substance or object that is
(a) used to protect, contain or transport a commodity or product, or
(b) attached to a commodity or product or its container for the purpose of marketing or communicating information about the commodity or product;”

Printed paper is defined in the Recycling Regulation and includes all paper printed with text or graphics (e.g., newspapers, flyers, phonebooks) with the exception of bound books).

This program will be implemented within three years of the regulatory amendment (May 19, 2014).

Yes. Ministry staff are currently planning stakeholder meetings to discuss the changes. The meetings are likely to take place in June and September/October 2011. In addition, industry is required to consult on its Product Stewardship Plan prior to submitting it to government for approval in November 2012.

Local governments may choose to participate in or assist a product stewardship program by:

• providing facilities or operational services as a service provider at a landfill or other local site for product collection or processing;
• helping to inform the public that the stewardship program is available;
• assisting the producer or agency with local land use and business licence issues relating to collection and processing facilities;
• imposing bans on the landfilling of the relevant products when appropriate.

All communities will receive some level of collection service. As a general principle, if the community currently has curbside collection, it will likely continue to receive it. The level of collection service will be an important consultation issue for local governments and private individuals when industry solicits stakeholder input on its draft stewardship plan.

Haulers and recyclers will need to transition to marketing their services to producers. Producers will conduct public consultation with all stakeholders on the details of their proposed program.

No, the definition of packaging and printed paper does not exclude sectors. The stewardship plan must adequately provide for collection of the product by the producer from residential premises and municipal property that is not industrial, commercial or institutional property.

Several commercial businesses are getting out ahead of the game and collecting all packaging they produce (e.g., London Drugs, Starbucks). It is the ministry’s expectation that ICI facilities will show leadership and strive to collect and recycle as much packaging as possible from their facilities (e.g., hospitals, schools, offices, restaurants, hotels, etc.).

Municipalities may also enact bylaws that ban packaging disposal that comes from ICI facilities and/or require all ICI licensed facilities to recycle packaging. The provincial government intends to include packaging and printed paper from private spaces. For example, spaces within industrial, commercial and institutional settings in the future.

Yes. The Canada-wide Sustainable Packaging Strategy (2009) requires all provincial and territorial jurisdictions to develop Extended Producer Responsibility programs for packaging as a first step and then work collectively on further goals, including reduction.

All the countries in the European Union have extended producer responsibility programs for packaging. Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba have developed similar packaging programs.