Ministry of Environment
Product Stewardship
Reports
Economic Impacts of the BC Recycling Regulation
In 2008 the Ministry of Environment engaged Gardner Pinfold Consulting Economists to evaluate economic aspects of industry product stewardship programs for eight of the product stewardship programs regulated within the B.C. Recycling Regulation. This regulation provides a single, results-based framework that engages industry in new ways by shifting responsibility for environmentally sound product end-of-life management and recycling to producers and consumers.
Employment Highlights
Employment generated directly by industry by meeting its stewardship responsibilities is estimated at 1,600 positions in direct employment and a further 500 created indirectly for a combined total of some 2,100 full time equivalent positions. The province’s beverage container deposit-refund system accounts for almost three quarters of employment with the stewardship programs for tires, electronics and used oil making up the other main contributors to employment.
Avoided Environmental Impacts
Diverting hazardous waste materials to stewardship management provided significant benefits to landfill operations as well as to the broader society in British Columbia. Benefits include reduced landfill costs, avoided contamination and avoided subsequent remedial clean up costs from improperly disposed products. In sum total over 121,000 tonnes of solid materials were recycled or otherwise managed in 2007 with glass, tires and plastic accounting for about 90% of this material. Additionally, over 51 million litres of used oil, solvents, flammables, pesticides and gasoline were collected and responsibly managed within the industry product stewardship programs.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Applying the US EPA ‘WAste Reduction Model’ (WARM) the study found that increased recycling of products within the B.C. industry product stewardship programs reduced roughly 267,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E) and saved 5.3 million gigajoules of energy relative to land filling. Aluminium cans and tires account for about 82% of these reductions.
These reductions are equivalent to saving:
- 72,950 Passenger cars removed from the roadway each year
- 858,913 Barrels of oil
- 150,776,044 Litres of gasoline
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