WCRRC report points to British Columbia recycling shortcomings

The West Coast Refuse & Recycling Coalition (WCRRC) has issued a study that examines British Columbia’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system for plastics packaging. Advocates in California, Oregon and Washington have looked to export the British Columbia EPR model to all three of thsoe states to increase recycling and encourage manufacturers to use more recyclable packaging, according to WCRRC.

The new report “exposes numerous flaws and shortcomings with B.C.’s EPR model for packaging,” states the organization. The report points to what it calls a lack of transparency, which the WCRRC says makes it nearly impossible to evaluate the program’s true cost, effectiveness or the recycling rates that result.

The report contends that examples of product redesign as a result of EPR policy in B.C. and Europe are “few in number and anecdotal at best.” Furthermore, manufacturers pass on the costs of EPR to their customers as a cost of doing business.

Another flaw, according to the WCRRC study, is that B.C.’s program “actively discriminates against lightweight products that are hard to recycle, but still have a lower environmental footprint than their recyclable competitors.” BC’s EPR system adopts a recycle-only approach to materials management that is uninterested in achieving the lowest environmental footprint, according to the group.

The report also examines how BC’s EPR system is pays incentive fees it determines are “reasonable” to local governments. But some BC communities told the report’s author, Chaz Miller, that the fees do not necessarily cover their full costs. As a result, the true costs of recycling are underestimated.

The WCRRC is an alliance of three waste and recycling trade associations based in California, Oregon and Washington. Access to the full study can be found on this web page.