Sent - Prince George Hall/Agendas/2011/2011...Sent: Thursday, September 15, 201110:55 AM To: Babicz,...
Transcript of Sent - Prince George Hall/Agendas/2011/2011...Sent: Thursday, September 15, 201110:55 AM To: Babicz,...
From: Recycling Council of BC [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Recycling Council of BC Sent: Thursday, September 15, 201110:55 AM To: Babicz, Walter Subject: EPR for Post-Consumer Packaging and Printed Paper in B.C.
EPR for Post-Consumer Packaging and Printed Paper (PPP) in B.C. Email not displaying correclly? Vie\\ it in your browser.
RCBC
~ Letter from RCBC
Address
10-119 W. Pender SL
Vancouver, BC V6B 1S5
Canada
Contact
T: 604.683.6009
F: 604.683.7255
W: www.rcbc.bc.ca
E: rcbcri, rcbcbc.ca
EPR for Post-Consumer Packaging and
Printed Paper
September 15, 2011
Mayor Dan Rogers and Council
City of Prince George
(PPP) in B.C.
I am writing to you on behalf of the Recycling Council of British
Columbia to inform you of an important regulatory change that
will soon affect your community.
On May 19, 2011 the Government of B.C. added Schedule 5
to the B.C. Recycling Regulation. This makes industry
responsible for managing post-consumer packaging and
printed paper (PPP). This change will take place over a 36-
month period from the date Schedule 5 was enacted. By the
end of that time, industry must have a B.C. Ministry of
Environment (MoE) approved plan in place to provide and fund
an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program for PPP
throughout B.C.
This means that at the end of that transition period,
municipalities would no longer need to provide recycling and
waste services for those materials, thus removing the cost of
doing so from their budgets. This may prove to be a significant
cost-saving for some communities once the responsibility of
these materials moves to EPR, just like other products now
covered under the Recycling Regulation.
B.C. already has more than a dozen EPR programs that are
managed and funded by industry. These include:
• Beverage containers (soft drinks, beer, wine, spirits)
• Paint, pesticide and flammable liquids
• Used lubricating oil , oil filters, oil containers, anti-freeze
• Electronics (computers, TVs, printers, laptops, MP3
and music players .... )
• Small appliances
• Tires
• Medications
• Fluorescent tubes and compact bulbs
• Lead-acid batteries
• Rechargeable and single-use batteries (AA, AAA, C,
D, etc.)
• Cell phones
• Thermostats and smoke detectors
More products will be scheduled under the Recycling
Regulation in the coming years.
The PPP materials covered under Schedule 5 will mean a
significant expansion from what is currently collected in most
blue box programs. It will literally include all the packaging for
goods found on grocer and retail shelves, as well as,
newspapers, flyers, magazines, phone books, etc. Bound
books are the only exception. Fast food packaging such as
clamshells, cartons and disposable coffee cups are also
included.
The expansion of coverage not only includes materials
collected in municipally funded blue box recycling programs,
but from the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream as well. It
will be in the best interests of communities if the amount of
PPP currently found in MSW were diverted from landfills to the
EPR program(s) created under Schedule 5.
Industry has established an organization called Multi Materials
British Columbia (MMBC) to act as the stewardship agency
responsible to develop an EPR plan. The industry groups that
have formed MMBC are:
1 . The Retail Council of Canada
2. The Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers
3. The Canadian Newspaper Association
4. The Canadian Restaurant and Food Services
Association
5. The Food & Consumer Products of Canada
MMBC has not yet determined how this service will be
delivered, but one of many options would be for it to fund and
manage an expanded blue-box type of curbside system.
RCBC is taking steps to assist local governments and other
stakeholders in the transition from the current municipally
managed system to that of EPR managed by MMBC. Over the
coming months, RCBC will develop a report on the issues
facing local governments and other stakeholders such as
nonprofit and private recyclers.
In cooperation with MoE, RCBC will act as a hub of information
and assist in the public consultation process. Information about
meetings scheduled this fall to discuss PPP issues can be
accessed at the following link: http://rcbc.bc.ca/education/product
stewardship/packagingepr. Meetings have already been set for
Prince George, (Oct. 11) Kelowna, (Oct. 12) and Burnaby (Oct.
13). Other meetings will follow. RCBC will regularly post
updates and issue alerts as more information and
opportun ities for public engagement becomes available.
Clearly it is in the best interest of any community considering
contracts or programs related to the management of these
materials to be as well informed of the process as early as
possible and to take into consideration the 36-month
timeframe for transition to industry responsibility.
If your municipality is not an RCBC member, we may not have
a staff contact within your organization to provide you with
information updates. If this is the case, and you would like to
ensure there is no disruption in communication during this
critical period, please contact Ben Ramos at ben(w,rcbc.bc.ca or
604 683-6009 ext. 314 to become a member or to find out
more.
Thank you for your time and attention to this important issue
concerning all British Columbians. If you have any questions
regarding the PPP initiative please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Brock Macdonald
Executive Director
brock(alrcbc.bc.ca
604 683-6009 ext. 307
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