Upon completion of the CNWM's Strategy to Promote Refillables and Reuse in Ontario in June of '97, we developed a proposed council resolution supportive of the principles contained within the report for distribution to all municipalities in Ontario. In response, 73 municipal councils expressed documented support for the components of the Refillables Strategy, as well as 42 environmental/citizen groups and 9 companies.
Whereas between 1985 and 1996 producers paid $41 million for the Blue Box system, while municipal and provincial taxpayers paid over half a billion dollars with municipalities paying more than 60% of this subsidy;Whereas a waste management approach called product stewardship which requires that producers take financial responsibility for the economic and environmental impacts of their products from extraction of raw materials, to the reuse, recycling and disposal of waste would eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the Blue Box system;
Whereas an effective product stewardship program would support: zero waste to disposal as an ideal to work toward to motivate continual improvement, the 3Rs waste management hierarchy, fair and equitable treatment of all producers, whether domestic or foreign, a convenient system for consumers to return products to producers, and ultimate phase-out of non-refillable beverage containers over the long term;
Whereas a deposit-return system has been demonstrated to be an effective component of product stewardship because of the high recovery rates achieved(between 72% and 98%), the significant amount of landfill space saved, and because only consumers who purchase the product pay the deposit;
Whereas eight out of the ten provinces in Canada (not Ontario and Manitoba) have a comprehensive deposit-return system for a broad range of beverage containers;
Whereas beverage containers comprise approximately 50% of the Blue Box by volume and considerable savings in collection costs could be achieved if these containers were eliminated from the Blue Box and placed in a deposit-return system;
Whereas the Association of Municipalities of Ontario adopted a resolution at the 1996 AMO Annual Conference in support of the Ministry of Environment and Energy introducing deposit- return systems for soft drink and other beverage containers in Ontario;
Whereas the Ontario government has set a provincial target of 25% diversion of municipal waste by 1992 and 50% diversion by 2000;
Whereas the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment has set a goal in the National Packaging Protocol (NAPP) of a 50% reduction by 2000 of packaging waste sent to disposal, with half being achieved by recycling and half by a combination of reuse and reduction;
Whereas if the NAPP goal of 50% diversion of packaging waste by 2000 is not met, then the federal and provincial governments are committed to enacting regulations to ensure that the 50% target is achieved;
Whereas recycling alone will not be able to achieve either the NAPP or provincial goals of waste diversion despite millions of dollars having already been spent, since the current rate of Blue Box diversion of packaging in Ontario is approximately 30%;
Whereas studies have proven that a waste management system with both a deposit-return system and a curbside program are fully compatible and together yield a greater diversion from disposal and at a lower cost per tonne than either could accomplish separately;
It is recommended that:
1. The MOEE set up a product stewardship program that makes producers fully responsible for the economic costs and environmental impacts of the products and associated packaging they produce over the life-cycle and that eliminates municipal taxpayer subsidies for the collection, reuse, recycling and disposal of these products and associated packaging;
2. The product stewardship program should include: zero waste to disposal as an ideal to work toward to motivate continual improvement; the 3Rs waste management hierarchy; fair and equitable treatment of all producers, whether domestic or foreign; a convenient system for consumers to return products to producers; and phase-out of non-refillable beverage containers over the long term;
3. The Province institute through regulation a comprehensive deposit-return system for all beverage containers, with specific refillables targets set and a timetable for achieving these targets;
4. The regulation require that empty beverage containers be returned to retail stores with adequate compensation for retailers to fully cover their handling costs;
5. The Minister of Environment and Energy establish a multi-stakeholder consultation on methods for meeting refillables targets which takes as a given that a comprehensive deposit-return system with increasing levels of refillable beverage containers across a broad array of beverage types will be in use in Ontario; and
6. The Province develop an education and promotion program regarding deposit- return systems, product take-back and reuse.
