WHEREAS recycling rates for residential homes in Metro Vancouver is approximately 45; AND WHEREAS in Metro Vancouver, the local government blue box curbside service is the most established and successful aspect of the waste stream in terms of diversion; AND WHEREAS recyclable materials represent a potential revenue stream for municipalities; AND WHEREAS public priorities to drive zero waste should focus on diverting more waste from multi-family dwellings, and the commercial and industrial sectors; AND WHEREAS the Province has amended the Recycling Regulation to include extended producer responsibility for paper and packaging by 2014; AND WHEREAS local governments have the most knowledge about the recycling system in their communities; AND WHEREAS the new stewardship program does not require local government blue box curbside service and could impact publicly controlled residential collection of paper and packaging: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Province amend the Recycling Regulation so that the stewardship organization fully fund residential recycling programs through local governments.
Ministry of Environment The Province recognizes the immense success and maturity of curbside blue box programs in many of British Columbias BC municipalities. The Province expects that the amendment to include Packaging and Printed Paper PPP in the Recycling Regulation Regulation will not only enhance curbside recycling programs to cover more materials, but also expand these programs into new geographical locations of BC. A key objective of packaging product stewardship is to provide the producers e.g., manufacturers, retailers with a financial incentive to make and sell products that contain less packaging. Despite the longstanding presence of blue box programs, waste composition studies for the Province show that PPP still accounts for anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of waste disposal in landfills. The increasing volume and complexity of packaging in the waste stream has proven difficult and costly for local governments to manage, yet they have no influence over the design and composition of the material introduced into the marketplace. The Province responded to the numerous resolutions passed by the Union of BC Municipalities UBCM and its members requesting provincial action to establish an Extended Producer Responsibility EPR program for PPP. The Regulation is designed to provide producers with maximum flexibility to achieve the environmental objectives set by the Province. One of these objectives is meeting a 75 percent recovery rate specified in section 51ai of the Regulation, which was chosen as a minimum performance target for all product categories, with the expectation that producers will continually improve performance. Thus, the Province expects to see a significant increase in recycling rates across BC from current levels. Producers of PPP had to consult on and submit a product stewardship plan to the Province by November 19, 2012 and will implement this plan by May 19, 2014. The Province expects that all communities will receive some level of collection service, and as a general principle, if the community currently has curbside collection it will likely continue to receive it. The level of collection service is an important consultation issue for local governments and the Ministry encourages you to participate in the current consultation process taking place on the draft stewardship plan. The definition of packaging and printed paper encompasses all PPP generated in the Province, regardless of sector. Currently the Regulation mandates the point of collection of the product to be from residential premises and municipal property that is not institutional, commercial and industrial ICI property. The Province expects ICI facilities to show leadership and strive to collect and recycle as much packaging as possible from their facilities. The Province intends to regulate collection from ICI property in the future. In the interim, municipalities may enact bylaws that ban packaging disposal that comes from ICI facilities andor require all ICI licensed facilities to recycle packaging. The Province realizes that the PPP category is different from other previously regulated product categories when it comes to the consultation needs of stakeholders, particularly local governments, and thereby acknowledges them as a key stakeholder in the development of a product stewardship plan for PPP. As such, the Province has made a more concerted effort in engaging local governments in the process. The UBCM PPP Working Group was formed to represent local government concerns so that their interests and existing expertise are acknowledged and utilized. The Province has made it a key priority to keep up-to-date on local government perspective with regards to the PPP stewardship program and will continue to communicate through UBCM PPP Working Group and with individual local governments as requested.