Ontario municipalities are currently filling out the annual data surveys that provide all sorts of information on the various materials recovered in the provincial Blue Box recycling system, and the costs for doing so. This information will then be collated and analysed with other data from stewards’ reports and selective waste audits before all the […]
Some looming questions for Ontario’s Blue Box program Read More »
When retailers started dropping plastic bags in favour of paper a few years ago, the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) responded by labelling paper bags as “tree-hungry.” More recently, the lobby against Toronto’s proposed ban on plastic bags urged city councillors to “Save a tree. Reverse the bag ban.” Today, the pattern continues, with CPIA
So where are all those trees we are ‘killing’? Read More »
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) this past weekend quietly removed a claim on its website about the use of trees to make paper bags, after mounting pressure from PPEC. So far, however, we have not received an apology from either CPIA or its consultant.1 This was the CPIA claim: that kraft paper production “is
One dirty lie removed from plastics’ industry website … Read More »
You will be pleased to hear that there is at least one thing we agree with the Canadian plastics industry on: that litter is a people problem, not a litter problem. Changing Canadians’ behaviour towards the materials they have used is a major educational challenge. The plastics industry has been on the receiving end in
Keeping the plastic guys honest on litter Read More »
John Mullinder, Executive Director (Regular posts on environmental and sustainability issues impacting the Canadian paper packaging industry). PPEC has been monitoring the proliferation of bans and/or fees on shopping bags for some time, the most recent iteration being the City of Toronto’s move to ban single-use plastic bags from sale, effective January 1st. While we
Not quite all in the bag yet Read More »
We get it that the current BC residential Blue Box “system” is a complicated patchwork of different collection and processing arrangements and control points, with a confusing array of instructions on what does, or does not go, in the box or bag. We get it that this patchwork needs to be transformed into a system
Grocers need to manage change, not give away the store Read More »
The province of British Columbia has asked industry “stewards” (brandowners and retailers) to design an industry-funded program for the collection, processing and marketing of residential printed paper and packaging. This is what the Program Plan should look like: 1. It should include all printed paper and packaging There should be no exceptions. No Ontario/Quebec/Manitoba-type systems
What BC’s new “Blue Box” Program Plan should look like Read More »
Proposed environmental labeling system could lead to claims of industry greenwashing The US-based Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) has transplanted a UK environmental labelling idea to a North American context and is encouraging Canadian companies to pilot it. While we commend the initiative, in our opinion there is a serious danger that companies adopting it could leave themselves
Environmental Labelling Read More »
How often have you seen this graphic commonly used to signify Ontario’s Blue Box System? It’s even on Waste Diversion Ontario’s website. You’d be forgiven for thinking that bottles and cans are the only materials being recovered. Wrong. Big Time. In fact, plastic, glass and metal containers represent just over 20% of what Ontario’s Blue
Giving paper due credit Read More »
British Columbia is the latest province in Canada to regulate extended producer responsibility (or EPR) for printed paper and packaging. Publishers, packaging brandowners and first importers (collectively known as stewards) have until November 19 to deliver a plan on how to do it. The big difference with BC is that industry will not only be
British Columbia has golden opportunity to get it right. Read More »
