This morning, the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks issued direction to RPRA and Stewardship Ontario to begin to transition the management of Ontario’s Blue Box Program to producers of plastic and other packaging. This will enable the transition of materials collected under the program to individual producer responsibility under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016.
The Minister’s direction letters are attached to this email.
The Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA) will oversee the wind up of current waste diversion programs and the industry funding organizations responsible for managing those programs.
During the transition, Stewardship Ontario (SO) will continue to operate the Blue Box program without disruption. Stewardship Ontario, which manages the current Blue Box Program, will submit a plan to the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority by June 30, 2020. The Blue Box Program will begin preparing for transition once the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority approves the plan, no later than December 31, 2020.
The plan will also establish a 3-year period in which municipalities will no longer be eligible to receive funding under the SO Program, starting on January 1, 2023 and ending on December 31, 2025, which is the date that SO Program will end and the new producer responsibility framework will be fully implemented.
The Minister also stated there will be further consultations as the Regulation is developed, and that stakeholders, including stewards, municipalities and service providers (e.g. collectors, haulers, processors, recycled product manufacturers) will receive transparent and clear communications from SO on a regular basis during development and implementation of the plan.
For more information, contact:
Mike Chopowick, Director of Policy & Communications
mchopowick@owma.org