The province of Ontario is expanding its vaunted Blue Box recycling program, which already boasts the highest diversion rate for residential printed paper and packaging in North America. The current plan for enhanced recycling in Ontario will be based on the Product Stewardship form of Extended Producer Responsibility, in which producers pay for the full cost of the municipal Blue Bin recycling operations. Under Ontario’s current program, producers pay half the costs of recyclables collection, sorting, and marketing. Under the planned new system, producers will be responsible for the full costs.
The list of materials accepted in the Province’s Blue Box program includes paper and plastic cups, wraps, foils, trays, bags and other single-use items such as stir sticks, straws, cutlery and plates. According to Resource Recycling, the regulations are part of Ontario’s years-long process of revamping its extended producer responsibility program (EPR) for printed paper and packaging.
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