PREVENT AND REDUCE LITTER IN NEIGHBOURHOODS AND PARKS
The prevalence of litter in our streets, green spaces and along our shorelines is a growing blight that threatens the quality of life in many Ontario communities and
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neighbourhoods. Litter can have negative impacts for wildlife, spill into our waterways, and interfere with the enjoyment of our parks. Illegal dumping in rural communities burdens local landowners and can have negative effects on farmland.
While many organizations, volunteers and communities have mobilized to hold clean-up days and take other initiatives to combat litter, we recognize that there is much more that can be done to engage our citizenry and keep our communities clean and free of litter and waste.
The province will take a number of actions to support these efforts. We will announce a day of action on litter in Ontario, coordinating with municipalities, schools, organizations and businesses who have been leading efforts to clean-up litter in Ontario. We will work with partners to sponsor events across the province to keep Ontario clean.
We will develop future conservation leaders through supporting programs that will actively clean up litter in Ontario’s green spaces, including provincial parks, conservation areas and municipalities. We will connect students with recognized organizations that encourage local environmental stewardship, so they can earn valuable, lasting experiences by cleaning up parks, planting trees and participating in other conservation initiatives.
But the best way to clean up our communities is to avoid litter in the first place. The people of Ontario have shown that when given the opportunity, they will do the right thing and divert or dispose of their waste properly. By and large, we see litter in our public spaces mainly when people lack convenient, accessible and effective diversion and disposal access.
That’s why, as we move to a full producer responsibility approach, we will look for opportunities to support our communities by promoting better access to diversion and disposal in our neighbourhoods, parks, and public spaces.
We will also look for opportunities, where feasible, to give producers responsibility for the collection and diversion of recyclables in parks and public spaces. We will explore options for producer responsibility in this area as we move towards transitioning our existing waste diversion programs to producer responsibility. We will look at ways to harmonize what is collected across the province which will help reduce the chance of litter and dumping in rural, remote and northern communities.
Education and awareness around the impacts of litter and waste is also imperative. In all our efforts we intend to work with municipal, non-profit and private partners to raise awareness of the impacts of litter and waste on our shorelines, green spaces and streets through public education campaigns.
We will also work with our municipal partners to take strong actions against those who illegally dump waste or litter in our neighbourhoods, parks and coastal areas. We will
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review enforcement tools, including the fines for littering in the Environmental Protection Act to ensure they are adequate and incorporate the appropriate level of polluter pays.
Ultimately, litter-reduction efforts hinge on fostering a greater sense of personal responsibility for the people of Ontario. It begins with recognizing that true environmentalism begins with a sense of civic responsibility and meaningful action close to home. By making a concerted effort to not litter and to pick up the litter of others we can all make a lasting difference in ensuring Ontario’s environment is protected.
Discussion Questions Let us know your thoughts on the discussion questions below. 1. How best can the province coordinate a day of action on litter? 2. What do you or your organization do to reduce litter and waste in our public spaces?
What role should the province play to facilitate this work? 3. What and where are key hotspots for litter that you think should be addressed? 4. How do you think litter can best be prevented in the first place? Where is access to
diversion and disposal particularly limited?
2.2 INCREASE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ONTARIAN’S TO REDUCE WASTE
Through municipal programs such as the Blue Box and the green bin, the people of Ontario have made a lot of progress in reducing and diverting their waste at home.
But more needs to be done to enable the people of Ontario to continue to do the right thing, whether at home, at work or on the go. In fact, some of greatest opportunities for improvement in the reduction and diversion of waste in Ontario lie with the businesses and institutions in this province.
Ontario’s diversion rate in the IC&I sectors has been stagnant for years. Ontario’s regulatory framework for the IC&I sectors is over 20 years old and largely ineffective. We have heard from stakeholders that the regulations are cumbersome and focused on process rather than progress. We also need better and more reliable data on the types of waste reduction and diversion efforts that are currently underway in the private sector. As we move forward, we need to focus on getting results, reducing burden on Ontario’s businesses and taking the right action to reduce and divert even more of our waste in Ontario’s businesses, institutions and places of commerce.
The province intends to take several actions that will enable businesses to innovate and apply their expertise to get our diversion rate moving in the right direction again. We will also take steps to avoid regulatory burden and maintain competitiveness.
Help people reduce and divert more waste
The patchwork of materials collected by Blue Box programs across the province can be confusing, often resulting in reduced recycling rates. What is acceptable in a Blue Box
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program in one municipality may not be acceptable in another, and for some small or remote municipalities there is no program at all.
This results in non-recyclable materials contaminating diversion streams, costing municipalities money when they sort out unrecyclable materials or sell processed materials of lower quality.
We can do better in making diversion consistent across the province. To reduce confusion, we will work with producers and municipalities to harmonize the list of materials accepted in Blue Box programs across the province. We also intend to consult on the collection and diversion of additional materials for the Blue Box Program. This will be accomplished by transitioning the existing Blue Box Program to full producer responsibility.
We may also designate new materials that are currently not covered under any of our diversion programs. We know that more materials can and should be diverted. Potential items which could be designated include:
• Small and large appliances. • Power tools. • Rechargeable batteries. • Fluorescent bulbs and tubes. • Mattresses. • Carpets. • Clothing and other textiles. • Furniture and other bulky items.
While we know that materials such as clothing and textiles are already re-used and recycled through many voluntary initiatives such as thrift stores, donation programs, community swaps, and some more recent retail take back initiatives, more can be done. The province could work with this sector to provide greater opportunities to encourage the collection and recovery of unwanted clothing and textiles instead of sending these valuable items to landfills.
Recycling in multi-unit residential buildings in Ontario also remains very low. There are several reasons for this, including the age of some buildings, which were designed to manage their waste stream through a single “garbage” chute. The people living in these buildings often have limited accessibility to source separation services. There are also costs associated with developing a multi-stream collection system that includes food and organic waste, Blue Box materials, and residual garbage.
The province has heard from stakeholders that greater efforts are needed to increase participation in waste reduction and resource recovery in multi-unit residential buildings and will work with municipal, non-profit and private partners to develop guidance to increase diversion in apartments and condominiums.
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Help businesses and institutions reduce and divert more waste
As noted previously, 60 per cent of Ontario’s waste comes from the IC&I sector (e.g. hospitals, restaurants, and offices). It is therefore important that we work closely with this sector to better understand the challenges they face and develop solutions that help them increase their participation in diversion efforts.
The current approach to the sector has been focused on process, rather than making progress. Businesses and institutions already know their operations best and simply require clear, results-based rules that are applied fairly and consistently across their sector.
Currently, Ontario Regulations 102/94 (Waste Audits and Waste Reduction Work Plans) and 103/94 (IC&I Source Separation Programs) require large businesses and institutions to identify the amount and types of waste they generate, develop waste reduction work plans, separate certain wastes at source and make reasonable effort to ensure that separated wastes are sent for reuse or recycling. Ontario Regulation 104/94 (Packaging Audits and Packaging Reduction Work Plans) requires manufacturers, packagers and importers to audit their packaging practices and develop packaging reduction plans.
These regulations, known as the 3Rs regulations, are more than 20 years old and do not adequately drive increased waste diversion. We need a new approach.
We will engage directly with businesses and institutions to assess how and where waste reduction and recycling is currently taking place and see how best to build on those efforts in the most cost-effective way.
As we work with businesses and institutions, we will develop an approach to help increase recycling with on-the-ground feedback that will need to take into consideration:
• How best to focus our efforts on the IC&I sector, both in terms of the establishments that will be subject to regulatory requirements and the types of waste materials that will help drive improvements in diversion rates.
• The greater use of results-based outcomes (e.g. setting waste reduction and diversion targets) for the IC&I sector, based on current waste volumes or high value materials.
• The processes that need to be developed for establishments to measure their waste reduction activities and hold the IC&I sector accountable for meeting provincial waste reduction goals.
• How best to collect information that will track improvements in waste diversion rates, while cutting red tape and minimizing regulatory burden.
• The alignment of any changes with producer responsibility and other existing policy (e.g. the Food and Organic Waste Policy Statement).
• The role of promotion and education in improving diversion rates. https://www.ontario.ca/page/food-and-organic-waste-policy-statement
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• How best to apply greater use of best practices (e.g. in multi-unit residential buildings), new technologies (e.g. mixed waste processing) and sector-specific pilot projects.
Any new approaches to diversion in the IC&I sector need to complement, not duplicate, producer responsibility requirements. In broadening the materials we divert in Ontario, we will make sure that we implement clear, streamlined requirements that are consistent with the principle of producer responsibility.
Get the right information to make sure we make progress
When residents and municipalities reduce or divert waste, we should be able to show them how their actions have resulted in progress. When we ask businesses to take responsibility for their waste, we need to be able to take clear action to maintain a competitive and level playing-field and also show that businesses are doing their part. In the past, this has been a challenge because we have lacked up-to-date information of how we are managing our waste.
It’s not fair to ask businesses, municipalities, and the people of Ontario to do more without being able to show them the results of their hard work. Information, along with clear rules and strong enforcement, is critical to ensuring we are getting real results from our efforts to reduce, divert and manage our waste. To provide real-time monitoring of our waste management systems, we need a clear picture of what is happening on the ground.
The challenge isn’t getting more information – it’s getting the right information. More specifically, we need information that will help Ontario:
• Assess the current state of resource recovery, waste reduction and future needs. • Understand where opportunities exist to recover resources and increase waste
reduction. • Determine whether environmental standards are being met. • Hold polluters accountable while reducing regulatory burden for responsible
businesses. • Improve our understanding of the costs and benefits of resource recovery and waste
reduction. • Evaluate and assess our performance against targets.
Any initiative to collect information must be flexible, nimble, and reduce burden on businesses. That’s why we propose to use the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA) to set up a one window approach for the collection of information. Producers for waste diversion programs, such as tires, currently report to RPRA. RPRA will use their established information clearinghouse (i.e. a registry) to collect important information from producers and other parties that conduct activities related to resource recovery and waste reduction (e.g. generators, service providers and municipalities).
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These efforts will help the province effectively set targets and develop policies while RPRA monitors and assesses producer performance to ensure a fair and competitive market. To build trust and transparency, the province may also require RPRA to make information available to the public, where appropriate, through its public-facing registry.
Discussion Questions Let us know your thoughts on the discussion questions below. 1. How can the province best help the public participate in waste reduction and
diversion activities? How can the province facilitate better diversion in lagging areas, such as multi-unit residential buildings?
2. What types of initiatives do you think would result in effective and real action on waste reduction and diversion for the IC&I sectors?
3. What role do you think regulation should play in driving more waste reduction and diversion efforts from the IC&I sectors?
4. How can we get accurate information on waste reduction and diversion initiatives in the IC&I sectors?
5. What do you think about a province-wide program for the recovery of clothing and textiles?
2.3 MAKE PRODUCERS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR WASTE
Ontario’s municipalities pioneered some of the world’s first curbside recycling programs in the 1980s.
A lot has changed since that time. Today, products and packaging are drastically different than the newsprint, and food and beverage containers managed by early Blue Box programs. Materials are more complex than ever, and changes to our economy mean markets for processed recyclables are global, not local. This leaves municipalities in the unenviable position of trying to manage materials they can’t anticipate and generate revenues from processed materials in highly-variable markets.
While municipalities will always have a critical role in our waste management systems, we believe that taxpayers should not be on hook for costs they cannot control.
Producer responsibility makes sense. The businesses that develop products and packaging are best positioned to make decisions that reduce waste or increase the resources that can be recovered from their products at end of life. It’s producers that know how to get their products to market, how their products are used, and when their life-span is expected to end.
Making producers responsible for the full waste cycle of their products will make recycling easier and more accessible across the province. A producer responsibility model also reduces the burden on taxpayers and promotes a competitive market for diversion.
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Producer responsibility is the most effective and accountable way to promote waste diversion, align the true costs of managing products and packaging at their end of life, and save taxpayers money. For example, shifting the Blue Box Program to full producer responsibility is estimated to save municipalities over $125 million annually, with this cost avoidance anticipated to rise in the coming years. That’s why Ontario is moving forward with a new producer responsibility system that will help encourage competition and innovation among producers while reducing the amount of valuable materials that end up in landfill.
As part of shifting to producer responsibility, existing waste diversion programs will undergo a transition process that consists of two concurrent steps:
1. Winding up the existing waste diversion programs and the industry funding organizations that operate them under the Waste Diversion Transition Act, 2016.
2. Putting in place regulations under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016 to make producers fully responsible for the materials managed under the existing programs.
To ensure a seamless transition, each new producer responsibility regulation will be fully implemented on the day the existing waste diversion program winds up.
Four waste diversion programs were developed and operated by three industry funding organizations under the Waste Diversion Act, 2002, and are currently continued under the Waste Diversion Transition Act, 2016:
1. Blue Box operated by Stewardship Ontario. 2. Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste (MHSW) operated by Stewardship Ontario. 3. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) operated by Electronic
Stewardship. 4. Used Tires operated by Ontario Tire Stewardship.
As well, four Industry Stewardship Plans have been approved under the Waste Diversion Act, 2002:
1. Used Paints and Coatings. 2. Pesticides, Solvents and Fertilizers. 3. Automotive Materials Stewardship. 4. Soda Stream.
Transition will continue to be guided by the following core principles:
• The government will lead the transition process. • The people of Ontario’s experience with and access to existing services will not be
negatively impacted, such as regular curbside collection of Blue Box materials. • Transition will promote competition and a level playing field in the marketplace.
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• All stakeholders will be extensively consulted and engaged in the process.
We have already made progress and will continue to transition Ontario’s existing waste diversion programs to producer responsibility. The Used Tires Program has ceased operation and a new regulatory framework which makes tire producers responsible for recovering their end-of-life products and packaging is now in place. Under the new system, tire producers are required to create an accessible and convenient tire collection network across the province to recover and recycle used tires so they do not end up in landfills.
Ontario Electronic Stewardship, which currently manages the WEEE Program, has submitted its wind up plan to RPRA and the WEEE Program was directed to cease operations on June 30, 2020. Stewardship Ontario has also been directed to submit a wind up plan for the MHSW Program to RPRA by June 30, 2019. The MHSW Program will wind up in two phases – the single use battery program was directed to cease operation on June 30, 2020, and the program for the remaining materials was directed to cease operation on December 31, 2020.
Changing how the Blue Box Program is managed may take longer as the province, municipalities and producers will need to have extensive discussions to ensure this very successful program continues to be accessible and convenient for households across the province. Cooperation among municipalities, producers, RPRA and Stewardship Ontario will be essential to ensure that taxpayers are protected and that there is a smooth transition to the new producer responsibility approach.
Considerations for consultation on the Blue Box Program transition process could include:
• Roles and responsibilities for the operation of the Blue Box Program. • Opportunities for municipal integrated waste management systems to support
producer responsibility. • How to address municipal contracts and assets, including existing contracts for
collection and post-collection management, and how to manage and minimize stranded assets.
• Opportunities to harmonize materials collected across Ontario and the type of collection activities that are undertaken.
• Opportunities to lower overall costs through greater harmonization in the collection and post-collection management.
• The status of Regulation 101/94 under the Environmental Protection Act, which currently requires every municipality with a population of at least 5,000 residents to operate a Blue Box waste management system prior to and after transition.
We will work closely with businesses and industry to expand beyond the wastes currently covered by existing diversion programs when looking for further opportunities to reduce, reuse, divert and recover resources under the producer responsibility
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framework. Materials such as carpets, mattresses, furniture and other bulky items are valuable waste materials that can be recovered and should not go to landfill.
We will work with RPRA to gather the right information to ensure that our producer responsibility systems are effective, accountable, and deliver results for the people of Ontario.
Discussion Questions Let us know your thoughts on the discussion questions below. 1. How do you think the Blue Box Program could best be transitioned to full producer
responsibility without disrupting services to Ontario households? 2. Should it transition directly to producer responsibility under the Resource Recovery
and Circular Economy Act, 2016 or through a phased approach? 3. When do you think the transition of the Blue Box Program should be completed? 4. What additional materials do you think should be managed through producer
responsibility to maximize diversion? 5. How can we make it easier for the public to determine what should and should not
go in the Blue Box? 6. How should the province implement the transition process of its existing programs to
producer responsibility without interrupting service?
