How Ontario’s changes to the Blue Box program might need to be recycled

Guest: Richard Warnica, business feature writer

Ontario's Blue Box paper and plastic recycling program is in the midst of the overhaul, catching up with jurisdictions all over the world by putting more of the responsibility for getting rid of waste packaging on to producers. The made-in-Ontario solution has left no one happy, including industry stakeholders and environmental experts. Both are asking for clarity as deadlines loom to make proposed changes. Will the new regulations gets tossed to the curb, or will they be recycled into something that may work?

This episode discusses several parties, including the Ontario government and Green For Life. Below are their responses when asked for comment:

"From our perspective, there's no disagreement," he said. "They think that we are the big bad guys that are going to get in and drive up costs significantly once we control the market. And it couldn't be further from the truth." — Patrick Dovigi, founder and CEO of Green For Life Environmental, Ontario's largest waste management company

"We are working to deliver a blue box system that will make recycling easier by standardizing what goes in the blue box and expanding services to more communities across the province....We have made sure we have a process that ensures broad collaboration and brings all parties together in pursuit of the best possible recycling system, and one that will be a North American leader." — a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks