The Ontario Waste Management…

The Ontario Waste Management Association (OWMA) supports the proposed Blue Box regulation under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, and backs most of its requirements to make producers responsible for collecting and managing blue box materials, comprised of designated products and packaging to be collected from eligible residential, facility and public space sources.

Our detailed recommendations to amend certain parts of the proposed regulation are listed in attached supporting document. Some of OWMA’s recommendations to strengthen key provisions include:

• Eliminating the proposed 10% material supply threshold qualification criteria in Section 8 (3) that would determine which producers and PROs would be eligible to create the rules for the development of the annual allocation table;

• Amend the Part I definition of Compostable Materials to exclude any materials that are able to be recycled, and add management requirements and recovery percentages for Compostable Materials;

• Eliminate the inclusion of recycled content weights from the calculation of management requirements;

• Provide producers with a reduced waste diversion value for non-recyclable residual waste that is concerted to energy recovery;

• Remove sunset provisions for key education and promotion provisions, so they are required beyond 2026;

• Maintain O. Reg 101/94 exemptions from Environmental Compliance Approvals so recycling depots and facilities can continue to operate unimpeded.