I have concerns with this…

I have concerns with this proposal.

Which stakeholders brought items to your attention? Is it big retailers and consumer brands complaining about costs that are too high when they already roll in profits? Are you going to actually listen to comments from the public and all concerned before making any decisions? Meaningful engagement was not done with Bill 5 so I have little trust you will with this proposal. This proposal has also not been well advertised and only been allowed the minimum comment period time. I would like to see more transparency and engagement from this government. The government should also listen to municipalities and stop overstepping on municipality jurisdiction. Many municipalities have individual needs and goals, where a blanket policy like this proposal will undermine their goals, cost them more, and make them invest more resources to switch from programs that are already working.

How come the Ontario government keeps cutting costs on environmental programs? They seem to keep spending money on things the public doesn’t need, like supporting developers in profiting. We also need affordable housing and better healthcare. How about the government stop attacking the environment (like Trump) and actually do things that the public needs?

We do need the environment. We only have one planet. Only if the planet is healthy, can people be healthy, and profit can happen. The environment goes hand in hand with the economy. Investing in the environment also leads to positive net gains for the economy and other aspects. I’m concerned that the proposed changes will increase plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is killing animals and negatively impacting human health. There is plastic in every ounce of the human body. This is causing fertility issues, higher risk of diseases, etc, which leads to higher health care costs. We need to reduce reliance on plastic and find alternatives to improve health and lessen costs to individuals and our health care system, etc. The changes here promote incineration, which will increase greenhouse gases, which increase climate change and all the negative impacts of that (e.g., wildfires, which reduce health and increase costs). The proposal will increase the amount of pollution to communities. How can you say it will allow recycling targets to be met? Are you redefining "recycling"? What science do you have suggesting what a realistic and sustainable target is?

This proposal seems to reduce accountability for those who produce waste. It seems to place more costs on renters and municipalities. Producers need to be more accountable for waste generated by their products. Very little is recycled in Ontario as it is. The Blue Box program needs to be improved, not cut. We need to recycle more, reduce more, and find better alternatives to increase sustainability. The onus can’t all be on consumers. Yes consumers can make better choices, but they’re often limited because it’s hard to avoid plastic. Producers and governments need to take more action to allow more choices to consumers. The proposed changes will eliminate rules instructing producers to collect packaging waste from buildings like apartments, senior homes and schools, who don’t have municipal pickup. The proposal will remove beverage company responsibility for their containers. Why should these companies be let off the hook? How is that encouraging a circular economy? The proposal will allow producers to burn non-recyclable plastic and still count it as recycling. How can you call that recycling? It feels like there is a lot of mis/disinformation in this proposal, which is not appreciated.
The Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act is supposed to require producers to manage recycling programs for packaging and single-use items. The proposal will weaken regulations.

Given that this proposal comes quickly after the Ford government passed Bill 5, which weakened more environmental protection, it seems that the government thinks that more garbage, dumps, and waste-burners are good for Ontario. How can you think that? We need to move towards green energy and sustainability. This proposal seems to go hand in hand with Bill 5, shifting towards deregulation that benefits producers and industry at the cost of environmental health (which impacts health and wellbeing of the public, among other aspects) and the general public.

How can the government say recycling targets will be met if they are proposing to reduce the recycling target for flexibility plastic packaging from 25 to 5%? Again, very little plastic is actually recyclable. We need to improve that or find better alternatives. Yes there may be costs, but they will be worth it in the long-run. There are lots of available alternatives to plastic; the more production is done, the cheaper things will be.

Delaying recovery targets by 5 years is too much. We have been facing a climate crisis and biodiversity crisis for decades. We are unlikely going to prevent the global temperature from rising by 1.5 degrees, which will have so many negative effects. We can’t delay action anymore. We need to move faster if we want a healthy planet for us and future generations. The Ford government is making me more and more scared of the damage and rising costs that I’m going to see in my lifetime, let alone for future generations. Delaying targets risks weakening Ontario’s circular economy goals. Given how long products have been trying to transfer to better alternatives, I find it hard to believe that another 5 years is necessary. I’d like to see some evidence from the Ontario government. Industry should be held accountable for trying to meet targets – are they failing to act?

If the proposal excludes multi-residential buildings and public spaces from producer collection responsibilities, won’t that increase urban waste?

Bring back deposit-return recycling. The majority of Ontarians are pro that, yet Ford scrapped it too. Ford pushed alcohol sales into stores, and now Beer Stores are closing, jobs are being lost, alcohol is too readily available (not good for additions, etc). This is not what the public needs.

I would like to see the Ontario government actually do something good for the environment, stop overstepping jurisdictions, listen to the public and experts, and work for the public interest not for profit/industry interest. You work for the public. I would like to see polluters be held accountable, and less packaging waste. This proposal suggests that we will have more garbage, higher costs to taxpayers, and steps back from building a circular economy. I’d like to see Ontario be more strict on producer responsibility, work towards zero waste targets in a timely fashion, include more buildings in recycling programs, and take opportunities to build a circular economy. I believe there are alternatives that can be done here and I don’t trust the government in any of its proposals given their history of attacks on the environment, public interest, and public engagement. Even if there is some good action in this proposal, I can’t see it because of the trust that the government has broken. The government needs to rebuild that.

You can do better.