[getsmart-l] The province should require the industry to adopt more aggressive recovery targets,

[John O'Gorman]

Local governments throughout the province are racing ahead with far more aggressive plans to reduce their reliance on expensive and potentially hazardous waste disposal options. The Town of Markham leads the way, having reduced the amount of garbage residents produce by more than half in only two years. It now boasts that it diverts 70 per cent of the material it once sent to landfill. "I'm confident that we're going to get to 85 or 90 per cent in the next few years," said Markham Councillor Erin Shapero. "It's such a positive picture. But for the rest, we're going to need provincial help.":
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080116.wbarber16/BNStory/Technology/home 

A clean conscience 
JOHN BARBER January 16, 2008 at 8:46 AM EST    jbarber at globeandmail.com

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Getting rid of old televisions and computers with a clean conscience will become a lot easier in Ontario under the terms of a new plan by the electronics industry to triple the tonnage of equipment that is diverted from landfill by recycling or reuse. 

Developed at the insistence of the Ontario government, the plan aims for "much-improved access to places people can have their old electronic equipment dealt with in an environmentally responsible manner," according to Barbara McConnell, spokeswoman for Ontario Electronic Stewardship, the industry group established to design and fund the new program.

Environmentalists and municipal waste managers welcomed the initiative as an important, overdue step in making producers and consumers jointly responsible for the waste they produce, rather than requiring local governments to process or dispose of it.

"This plan sets a new precedent in this province in that it is directed at the consumers," said Jo-Anne St. Godard, executive director of the Recycling Council of Ontario. "It's about the relationship between a consumer and a producer, which is getting closer to the whole concept of producer responsibility."

Currently in Ontario, almost three-quarters of discarded televisions, computers, monitors, peripherals and printers are landfilled or incinerated - a total of at least 70,000 tonnes a year, according to estimates in the plan.

The industry plan anticipates the recovery of 48 per cent of such waste in the first year of a new program, increasing to 65 per cent by Year 5. But with several Ontario municipalities competing to divert up to 70 per cent of their former waste from landfills and incinerators, such targets are now considered modest.

"I'm very pleased that they're finally starting a program," said Barry Friesen, director of waste management in Niagara Region and spokesman on the issue for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. "We've been talking about this for nearly 10 years. But I would have preferred to see it go a little further."

The province should require the industry to adopt more aggressive recovery targets, according to Mr. Friesen. "I don't see why, when you have a population that wants to recycle, we can't get a better recovery in the first year than 48 per cent and only about 65 per cent by Year 5," he said. "Surely we can strive to do better than that."

Although Ontario lags behind several other provinces in regulating producer responsibility, it stands to benefit from the existence of an active recycling industry, according to the report. It estimated that the local industry is currently capable of processing 170,000 tonnes a year of electronic waste.

"We actually have a fairly robust infrastructure in place even without a program plan," Ms. St. Godard said of the recycling council. "What [the plan] will do is provide the financial mechanisms to expand upon that and maximize it."

The industry is facing a deadline of March 31 to finalize the plan and present it to the province. After that, its fate is indeterminate. 

In the meantime, local governments throughout the province are racing ahead with far more aggressive plans to reduce their reliance on expensive and potentially hazardous waste disposal options. The town of Markham leads the way, having reduced the amount of garbage residents produce by more than half in only two years. It now boasts that it diverts 70 per cent of the material it once sent to landfill.

"I'm confident that we're going to get to 85 or 90 per cent in the next few years," said Markham Councillor Erin Shapero. "It's such a positive picture. But for the rest, we're going to need provincial help."
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