The Blue Box Regulation, under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016 (RRCEA) came into effect on June 3, 2021, and made producers of products and packaging fully responsible for managing their products at end of life.

Read Our June 2021 Summary

In short, the Blue Box Regulation requires producers to collect and divert paper, packaging and single-use items. Producer responsibility organizations (PROs) are implementing the Blue Box Regulation by developing a province-wide common collection system on behalf of producers.

On Tuesday, April 19, 2022 the Government of Ontario filed amendments to the Blue Box Regulation without posting them to the Environmental Bill of Rights for a (minimum) 30-day comment period as was custom.

Noted Changes Highlighted by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks

• Removing the allocation rules and allocation table from the regulation.
• Making every producer responsible for providing a province-wide collection network.
• Making it easier for producers and PROs to collaborate on a province-wide common collection system that will service all collection locations and eligible communities.
• Requiring PROs that represent producers that supply more than 66% of Blue Box tonnes to submit an operational plan for how they will operate the system.
• Exempting newspaper publishers from collection, management, and promotion and education requirements.
• Maintaining newspaper collection so residents can continue to recycle newspaper in the Blue Box system.

Noted Changes Noted and Highlighted by the Ontario Waste Management Association

Removal of Rule Making and Allocation Table

• The amended Regulation removes all references to rule making and the allocation table (Part III of the regulation was revoked in its entirety).
• Those sections have been replaced with requirements making every producer responsible for providing curbside collection of Blue Box materials for every eligible source that receives curbside garbage collection.
• Producers must provide depot collection for every eligible source that receives depot collection.

Initial Report from PROs

• To set up Ontario’s new Blue Box recycling system, the amended Regulation requires the submission of a report to RPRA, no later than July 1, 2022, by a PRO or multiple PROs, through agreement, that represent 66% of the aggregate weight of blue box material supplied to Ontario consumers in 2020.
• PROs’ market shares will be calculated based on the agreements they have signed with producers prior to April 1, 2022.
• If a PRO or PROs, through agreement, meet this threshold, the report they submit must include the following:
  
  • A description of how the collection system will be established and operated.
  • A detailed description of how collected blue box materials will be made available for processing, how it will be processed, and where receiving facilities will be located in Ontario.
  • A description of how the Regulation’s promotion and education requirements will be met.
    If two or more PROs have entered into an agreement, one PRO must submit a single report to RPRA on their behalf.

Newspapers

• If in a calendar year more than 70% of the weight of a producer’s total blue box materials supplied to Ontario consumers is newspapers, that producer is exempt from the collection, management, and promotion and education requirements under the Regulation for newspapers, as well as any protective plastic wrapping, supplemental advertisements, and inserts that are provided along with newspapers.
• The Regulation requires other obligated producers to collect newspapers. They can then count the management of those collected newspapers towards their paper target.