The President of the Bluewater Recycling Association says discussions are currently underway to convert the blue box program to a Producer Responsibility Model.
Francis Veilleux explains the blue box program in Ontario currently operates under a shared responsibility model in which the municipalities are responsible for the operation of the program and the cost is shared roughly on a 50-50 basis. Veilleux says, under the regulation that was passed in 2021, the producers will be responsible for operating and paying for the full blue box program. So at this time they're working on the transition from a municipal led program to a producer led program.
“They have a three-year window to do that that starts on July 1 of 2023 to the end of 2025 to take the programs over from the municipalities. In our are,a every municipality is technically converting to the producer program as of April 1st, 2024," Veilleux shared.
Veilleux says there won't be any changes to the program until April 1 of 2024, but he doesn't anticipate any changes after that either because the producers aren't going to want to start operating the program.
“So the producers are looking for service providers to take on those services on their behalf. They're going to be using existing facilities where possible and so we're working with them on that, so they've got a number of requests for proposals for services. The Association is participating with those in hopes that it will be successful in continuing services," added Veilleux.
Veilleux says the intent of the program is that it will be seamless as far as the consumer is concerned, and as theye continuing to put out their material, it will be taken care of. He says the savings to each municipality could vary slightly depending on population density and things like that, but he estimates the savings will be about $70 per household per year