Image

Archive for Dennis Colley

Key decisions looming on Canada’s Blue Box EPR programs

North America’s first full producer responsibility EPR program for the Blue Box has been running for over a year now in British Columbia, with positive results. Will Ontario and the other provinces follow suit? Will they have the political wherewithal to effectively address the key issues of free-riders and producer control?

The paper industry has a major interest in these matters. Some 75% of the material collected in Canada’s Blue Box systems is paper of one kind or another, most of it used again and again as feedstock to produce new printed paper or packaging. Paper products provide more than half of all Blue Box revenues.

But the Blue Box is only part of the story. Canada’s recycling mills rely far more on the collection of old corrugated boxes from the back of factories and supermarkets, and on the used printing and writing paper collected from offices. The infrastructure to recycle this material has existed for years.

This is why it is so important that the provincial politicians who make decisions on who controls the Blue Box, make them based on overall need, not just on what municipalities say they want or are lobbying for. There are economies of scale to be achieved by better coordinating the location and capacities of all transfer stations and material recycling facilities (MRFs) in a province, whether they cater to industrial, commercial and institutional recycling or to what comes out of people’s homes. Too many MRFs, with all the same bells and whistles, is a recipe for financial disaster.

PPEC’s upcoming seminar on October 28th couldn’t be better timed. The speakers include:

GlenMurrayGlen Murray, Ontario’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change. The minister has promised to introduce new waste reduction and resource recovery legislation to Ontario. This will impact all waste streams and recycling in the province. Here’s your chance to hear the minister explain, in person, the major thrust and intentions of the new legislation.

 


DLPicDan Lantz
, COO of Green by Nature EPR, which processes the residential materials from all of BC’s recycling programs. How is North America’s first full producer responsibility program working? What can we learn from it? Do we want it to be applied in other provinces? What are the implications for the paper, glass, plastic and metal industries?


RobertChantBob Chant
, VP Corporate Affairs and Communication at Loblaw, who represents Canada’s major grocery retailer on several producer-related bodies, including the industry funding organisation for Ontario’s Blue Box program, Stewardship Ontario, and its parent, the Canadian Stewardship Services Alliance (CSSA). What’s the retailer perspective on EPR in Canada? How are they handling the conflicting demands and range of programs across the country? What do they see as the key decisions to be made going forward? What are the implications for the material sectors?

DennisColleyThe seminar will be rounded out by an American perspective from Dennis Colley, President of the Fibre Box Association, representing the US corrugated box industry. What is the status of the EPR debate in the US, and what are the implications for the paper industry there?

 

For more details on this timely seminar, click here.

To register for this event please click here.

Friends of PPEC, you are invited!

It’s party time! The industry’s environmental council turns 25 this year and wants to let its hair down (what’s left of it!). The plan is to both celebrate the past and to look forward to the future, while having a good time.PPEC turns 25

The Big Event takes place on October 28 in Mississauga, Ontario and registration is now open. An afternoon seminar will focus on current and future challenges and opportunities, including the implications of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for the paper industry as a whole.

Confirmed speakers to date include Dan Lantz of Green by Nature and Dennis Colley of the US-based Fibre Box Association. Invited speakers include EPR consultant Glenda Gies, retailer Bob Chant (Loblaw) and Ontario’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Glen Murray. Canada is at a real crossroads regarding EPR.

The 25th Anniversary Dinner will follow a reception and entertainment. PPEC will launch its campaign for “best short historical documentary” to be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival next year, and some old folks (and some not-so-old folks) will no doubt talk about PPEC past and present.

Over 25 years the council has made many friends in many walks of life: politicians, civil servants, fellow industry colleagues, environmentalists, educationists, you know who you are. We’ve lost touch with some of you, and you have moved on to other endeavours, but we’d love to get back together to catch up. Life is too short, and 25th anniversaries don’t come around very often. So if you are interested please take advantage of this opportunity and register now!  We’d love to see you.

False and misleading claims removed from IFCO website

The North American paper packaging industry has served notice that it will challenge (legally, if necessary) any false and misleading claims about its operations and environmental impact. Case in point: major plastic crate supplier, IFCO.

IFCO is lobbying North American grocery retailers to move away from the traditional corrugated box system of delivering fruit and vegetables. In the course of promoting its plastic crate alternative, IFCO has made various economic and environmental claims. This is its right. But IFCO (and others) also have a responsibility to be able to substantiate any such public claims when challenged.

Among the most pernicious of IFCO’s recent claims were that “most (corrugated) boxes” were disposed of in landfills, and that only “a small percentage of used boxes (were) recycled.” These claims were so patently false (certainly to the corrugated industry) that for a while they served as a great example of IFCO’s lack of credibility on this issue.

Colley: Need for facts and data back-up.

Colley: Need for facts and data back-up.

But now the kid gloves have come off. The US-based Fibre Box Association recently sent a “cease and desist” letter to IFCO demanding documentation to substantiate its claims, or removal of them from the IFCO website. Within 24 hours of IFCO receiving the letter, the untrue statements had been removed. “Let’s use this (example) as a reminder,” said FBA President/CEO Dennis Colley, “to be fact-based; to have data to back up our claims; and to challenge those who don’t.”(1)FBA Forces IFCO Website Change, Board Converting News, December 22, 2014

For the record, some 89% of US corrugated boxes were recovered for recycling in the most recent data year. (2)US EPA Municipal Waste Characterisation tables, 2013. PPEC estimates the Canadian rate at about 85 per cent.(3)The most recent national recycling statistics for packaging materials in Canada are now 18 years old! In 1996, Statistics Canada estimated corrugated recovery at 76%. PPEC estimates this has improved since then, partly because of increased residential recovery efforts. The recovery rate for corrugated in Ontario’s Blue Box program, for example, was 85% in 2012.  In both countries, most grocery stores recover nearly all of their corrugated boxes in backroom balers. The baled material is then sold to generate revenue before being recycled back into new corrugated boxes.(4)“When we divert cardboard, not only do we reduce the cost and the environmental consequences of sending it to landfill, it’s all recycled and turned into revenue for us.” – Loblaw Green Team member quoted in Canadian Grocer magazine. PPEC estimates that Canadian retailers received over $50 million in revenue for their old corrugated boxes last year.

References

References
1 FBA Forces IFCO Website Change, Board Converting News, December 22, 2014
2 US EPA Municipal Waste Characterisation tables, 2013.
3 The most recent national recycling statistics for packaging materials in Canada are now 18 years old! In 1996, Statistics Canada estimated corrugated recovery at 76%. PPEC estimates this has improved since then, partly because of increased residential recovery efforts. The recovery rate for corrugated in Ontario’s Blue Box program, for example, was 85% in 2012.
4 “When we divert cardboard, not only do we reduce the cost and the environmental consequences of sending it to landfill, it’s all recycled and turned into revenue for us.” – Loblaw Green Team member quoted in Canadian Grocer magazine. PPEC estimates that Canadian retailers received over $50 million in revenue for their old corrugated boxes last year.