Whereas the provincial Recycling Regulation renders producers responsible for collecting and recycling the products that they make and sell; And whereas the Multi-Material British Columbia MMBC product stewardship plan outlines how, acting on behalf of producers, it will increase the provincial recycling rate for packaging and printed paper from approximately 52 per cent to over 75 per cent; And whereas MMBC estimates suggest that 400 businesses have yet to discharge their financial obligations under the BC Recycling Regulation - that they are, in effect, non-compliant - thereby limiting MMBCs financial ability to expand collection system capacity: Therefore be it resolved that the Ministry of Environment improve the regulatory compliance of producers under the Regulation, so that MMBC can finance continued expansion of the packaging and printed paper collection system to all communities throughout the province.
Ministry of Environment The Ministry of Environment the Ministry fully recognizes that several communities such as Comox do not yet have full producer-funded collection of packaging and printed paper PPP through the program being delivered by Multi-Material BC. MMBC has referenced their inability to expand their collection network due to a large number of non-compliant producers free-riding on MMBCs current collection system, and its signed producers being over-subscribed i.e. MMBC is collecting more materials than its signed producers are responsible for under the Recycling Regulation. Since the introduction of the packaging and printed paper PPP program, Ministry resources have been reallocated to undertake one of the largest and most concerted compliance and enforcement initiatives in recent Ministry history targeting hundreds of PPP producers and already resulting in MMBC recovering more than 5.8 million of free-riding producer fees. The Ministry has introduced a new enforcement tool designed specifically for situations of non-compliance where an administrative requirement has not been met e.g. in the realm of product stewardship, failure to report data or be covered by a stewardship plan. Administrative Monetary Penalties AMPs are fines issued by Ministry officials, not the courts hence they are more immediate and often more effective and can be up to 40,000 per offence for this type of non-compliance. The Ministry has now begun to issue AMPs against free-riders operating under the PPP program; these are expected to gain the attention of other free-riders that may be unresponsive or uncooperative to date. The Ministry has now issued approximately 1,650 advisory letters to possible free-riding PPP producers since 2013, and continues to pursue escalated enforcement action through issuance of warning letters or AMPs themselves as appropriate. The first phase of the Ministrys compliance and enforcement process is now substantially complete, with all known PPP producers having been engaged by the end of 2015. Although the Ministry has had great success with voluntary compliance, there will always be difficult producers that may require additional penalties or legal recourse. However, the Ministry expects in early 2016 to have all larger producers involved in the program. Ministry compliance work does not translate into immediate MMBC service. There is a lag time of approximately six months between producers signing a membership agreement with MMBC and therefore becoming compliant, and them then calculating and submitting their membership fees. After this time has passed, the Ministry will have a full picture of producer compliance. The single biggest impediment for MMBC to be able to fully meet its service level objectives and expand service to waitlisted communities is the non-compliant newspaper sector, which represents an estimated 8.6 million in producer fees multiple times that of all remaining free-riders combined. With compliant PPP producers currently paying for all free-riders material, MMBC cannot require them to fund more serviceswaitlisted communities until this single largest freeriding producer is addressed. Discussions between senior government and the newspaper sector continue in an effort to resolve this situation.