The sa国际传媒 government is handing our blue boxes to a private organization, but it can鈥檛 escape responsibility for fixing problems with the new system. Although the government says it has consulted everyone affected, the list of organizations dismayed by the transition is long, including municipalities, the recycling industry and businesses large and small. All have been fighting for changes.
To meet sa国际传媒 government requirements, producers of packaging and printed paper created a not-for-profit society called Multi Material sa国际传媒, and the province approved the society to take over management of recycling of those materials, beginning on May 19.
The principle is called 鈥渆xtended producer responsibility,鈥� which means that any business that produces waste has to be responsible for paying for recycling it.
We are used to paying deposits on our bottles and up-front fees on things such as tires. That won鈥檛 happen with packaging and paper, but since the goal is to shift the burden from taxpayers to industries, the cost will ultimately have to be paid by consumers in higher prices.
Teething problems are expected, but there are still too many questions to make this program ready for prime time.
For municipalities, the question has been money. They had the option of receiving 鈥渋ncentive鈥� money from MMBC to fund their current curbside pickup service or having MMBC provide it instead.
Some complained that MMBC was not offering them enough. In response, the government says that MMBC will give municipalities the option of retaining their own curbside pickup and continuing to pay for it themselves 鈥� in other words, opting out of MMBC 鈥� or delaying implementation. The Capital Regional District will continue operating its blue box system for all area municipalities through contractor Emterra until May 2015.
Chambers of commerce started asking questions last summer about the effects on small businesses.
New rules announced at a news conference this month will exempt any business that meets one of three criteria: annual revenues less than $1 million, less than one tonne per year of packaging and paper, or a single retail outlet that is not part of a franchise. The chambers estimate that all but 3,000 of sa国际传媒鈥檚 385,000 businesses will be exempted.
The Waste Management Association of sa国际传媒 also has had no answers to its questions. Recyclers have been operating a system for years and don鈥檛 know how the new organization will affect their business.
The newspaper industry, which was involved in initial discussions but is not a member of MMBC, is another sector with questions.
John Hinds, CEO of Newspapers sa国际传媒, the organization that represents newspapers, said the industry thought it had a deal with MMBC to cover its share of the costs by providing free advertising for the recycling programs.
But MMBC decided that would mean other producers were unfairly subsidizing newspapers. The papers face a total bill of about $6 million.
鈥淭his is the only place in the world where this is happening to newspapers,鈥� Hinds said. In Europe and the United States, newspapers are exempt from similar programs, he said.
Newspaper makes up 40 per cent to 50 per cent of the material that is picked up for recycling, and 85 per cent of newspaper is already recycled. Many municipalities earn revenue from recycled newsprint, Hinds said. MMBC is dominated by large multinational companies whose focus is on packaging, not printed paper.
One way or another, it鈥檚 the consumer who will pay for the system, so it鈥檚 in everyone鈥檚 interest to make it work properly.
The fact that a sweeping revision of the rules was made this month shows that this is still a work in progress. It should not be launched with so many questions unanswered.
