Product Stewardship

New Products

The Recycling Regulation, enacted on October 7, 2004 under the authority of the Environmental Management Act, currently includes product categories for electronics, tires, beverage containers, used oil, oil filters and oil containers, paint, pharmaceuticals, and residuals (flammable liquids, solvents, pesticides and gasoline). The regulation makes the producer (manufacturer, distributor, importer) responsible for the life-cycle management of their products, including financing the collection and recycling of discarded products.

The Ministry of Environment has a Service Plan commitment to add two new product categories to industry-led product stewardship every three years. Therefore a list of candidate products in the Deputy Minister's letter below was distributed in June 2007 to stakeholders and other interested parties.

Letter from the Deputy Minister to Industry Product Stewardship Stakeholders and Interested Parties, June 26, 2007 (PDF/1.7 MB / 2 pages)

After reviewing consultation input, the announcement below was made on April 24, 2008 that government intends to add mercury-containing light bulbs and thermostats to the Recycling Regulation as well as expand the existing electronics product category in the fall of 2008.

News Release, April 24, 2008: B.C. Expands List of Regulated Recyclable Products (PDF/24 KB / 2 pages)

Expansion of the Current Electronics Product Category

Following up on the April 2008 announcement, the electronics product category in Schedule 3 of the Recycling Regulation was amended in December of 2008 to include a variety of electronic and electrical products including accessories such as light bulbs and batteries. The table below lists products in Phase 2 and Phase 3 captured by this amendment.

The electronics products captured in Schedule 3 include computers and computer periphery, laptop computers, printers, monitors and televisions.

This product category is now expanded to capture other electronic products, as well as electrical products. The table below lists the products captured and deadlines to submit stewardship plans and launch programs for each phase.

For a more detailed product list please click here (PDF/197 KB).

	Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3
Products	• Televisions • Computers • Computer monitors, keyboards, mice and other peripherals • Printers	• IT and telecommunications equipment • Small appliances • Audio-visual and Consumer equipment • Lighting equipment (also captures all light bulbs including mercury-containing light bulbs) • Toys, leisure and sports equipment • Monitoring and control instruments (also captures mercury-containing thermostats) • Batteries used in Phase 2 products	• Large appliances • Electrical and electronic tools (except large-scale stationary industrial tools) • Medical devices (with the exception of all implanted and infected products) • Automatic dispensers • Batteries used in Phase 3 products
Stewardship Plan Submitted to Ministry	Completed 2007	January 1, 2010	January 1, 2012
Launch Province Wide Recycling Program	Completed 2007	July 1, 2010	July 1, 2012

A copy of the Recycling Regulation and guideline are available under the Legislation & Regulations tab in the left sidebar.