With landfill space expected to run out across Ontario within the next decade, policy makers want businesses to play a larger role in reducing waste.
The Ontario government is rolling out tougher regulations across the province in the new year “to ensure producers – not taxpayers – cover the cost of managing the waste they create,” according to an e-mail statement from Alexandru Cioban, press secretary for the minister of environment, conservation and parks.
This regulatory framework is called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
It’s meant to “shift the financial and operational responsibility of recycling from municipalities to the organizations that produce packaging, paper and packaging–like products,” according to the Circular Materials website.
Circular Materials is a national non-profit organization that “helps producers meet their obligations” under similar EPR programs in Alberta, British Columbia and New Brunswick.
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“One of the biggest problems is that companies are making more and more packaging, more and more disposable stuff,” said Emily Alfred with the Toronto Environmental Alliance. “And we’re the ones left to figure out what to do with it.”
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Some Ontario municipalities are already under EPR, but in January, all blue box programs in the province will be picked up by Circular Materials.
However, multi-residential buildings that are managed by private waste management companies, rather than a municipality, won’t become part of the EPR program until 2031.
It’s a concern in places like Toronto, where apartments and condos only have a 27 per cent diversion rate, while single-family homes divert 61 per cent of waste from landfill.
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However, with the start of EPR, the hope is this will mean less recyclable material in landfills.
“For the first time, the same list of recyclable materials will apply across the province,” said Cioban.
With that said, diversion rates have become an issue, said Charlotte Ueta, the acting director of policy, planning and outreach for the City of Toronto’s solid waste management services.
Diversion is when waste is kept out of landfills through blue box or organic waste programs.
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Toronto has been stuck at a diversion rate of around 50 per cent for the past decade.
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The entire province only has a diversion rate of 24.2 per cent, according to the most recent statistics from Environment and Climate Change Canada in 2022.
“A lot of what we’re consuming is actually not really compatible with today’s recycling systems,” said Calvin Lakhan, director of York University’s Circular Innovation Hub.
Lakhan warns recycling might not be the most sustainable solution to Ontario’s waste management problems.
“I think EPR will ultimately lead to increased costs of consumer goods,” said Lakhan. “And it’s unlikely that we’re going to achieve any significant increases in diversion or recycling.”
Circular Materials CEO Allen Langdon said that prediction is “not valid,” arguing that producers are investing in new recycling facilities to increase the amount of material that can be repurposed.
“We’re not judged on how much we collect, but actually how much gets sorted and how much actually gets recycled,” said Langdon.
Some environmentalists argue the plan needs tougher enforcement.
For example, most financial penalties for producers missing diversion targets won’t kick in until at least 2028.
“We’ve seen really aggressive lobbying by those producers to water down the regulation,” said Alfred.
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