RCO Seeks Blue Box Ideas

The Recycling Council of Ontario (RCO), Toronto, is looking for public and industry insider input to help formulate the way the province’s recycling program will be funded.

Under a funding plan adopted by the province, municipal governments can have up to 50 percent of their net operating costs paid for by companies whose packaging and printed paper are placed in curbside blue boxes. The burden will fall primarily on manufacturers, with newspaper and magazine publishers having reached a deal with the province to provide advertising and publicity space rather than cash payments.

The RCO has scheduled six public information sessions to seek comments on how to carry out the funding method that has been partly determined by Ontario Bill 90, which is also being called the Waste Diversion Act.

According to RCO membership officer Sarah Mills, discussions will center on how funding shares of product manufacturers and packaging manufacturers should be determined. Already, aluminum can makers are suggesting that their products do not impose costs on programs, and thus any payment formula should be different for them.

Mills says the sessions will feature comments from representatives of the industries affected as well as others who have been involved in formulating the province’s recycling policies. She says the group also hopes that members of the general public will come forward with opinions and ideas.

The first of the sessions will take place in Toronto this Thursday, with the others planned for different parts of the province in January:

-Thurs., Dec. 12, Toronto, Church of the Holy Trinity, 2-4 p.m.

-Fri., Jan. 3, Guelph, Univ. of Guelph, 7-9 p.m.

-Tues., Jan. 7, Thunder Bay, Blake Mem. Auditorium, 3-7 p.m.

-Thurs., Jan. 9, North York Civic Centre, 3-7 p.m.

-Fri., Jan. 10, London City Hall, 3-7 p.m.

-Mon., Jan. 13, Kingston City Hall, 3-7 p.m.

Comments made at the sessions will be forwarded to Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, which will ultimately draft a final funding plan.

Those seeking more information on the sessions can contact the RCO through its Web site, www.rco.on.ca.