An ad hoc alliance of industry groups from across BC wants the provincial government to toss out a controversial new recycling system they say will drive up the cost of everything from food and beverage packaging to newspapers by forcing new fees on businesses.
The various business associations — including representatives from the newspaper, recycling, agriculture and waste management sector — have launched a public awareness campaign with ads in more than 130 newspapers as well as on social media. The hope is that BC residents will write Premier Christy Clark asking her to rethink the plan of handing over BC’s recycling systems to a consortium of multinational corporations.
“The premier all along made it very clear in speeches, you know, ‘cut read tape, we need to get to yes on economic development as soon as possible.’ She wants to get BC’s economy kicked into gear, [but] this is the way to do just the opposite,” said Mike Klassen, BC director of provincial affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, at a news conference Monday.
Three years ago, the BC Liberal government changed environmental regulation laws to make manufacturers of packaging and printed paper (PPP) products responsible for the lifecycle of their goods instead of municipal governments starting in May 2014. It put control of the program, which is seeking to reuse at least 75 per cent of materials, in the hands of Ontario-based Multi Materials BC (MMBC), a not-for-profit agency created in 2011 whose board of directors includes executives from large corporations such as Wal-Mart and Coca Cola.
Critics argue the move will result in companies charging consumers more for goods to offset costs that were previously subsidized by the government.
Producers that sign up with MMBC will pay a volume-based fee to cover the cost of collecting and recycling goods, which for newspapers works out to 20 cents per kilogram compared to less than two cents in Manitoba and half a penny in Ontario.
“Our concern here is with this particular regulation doesn’t address anything to do with the environment and is simply a tax shift,” said Canadian Newspaper Association chairman Peter Kvarnstrom, whose industry is already facing tough times. “Don’t think for a minute that the price of your Tim Hortons coffee or the products that you buy at Wal-Mart, that those companies are going to suck it up. That money will be coming out of your pockets one way or another.”
BC is the only province in Canada to require producers to pay for the full cost of recycling, and Kvarnstrom estimates the cost for the newspaper industry could be as high as $14 million a year.
Kvarnstrom is president of BC operations for Glacier Media Group, the parent company of WE.
MMBC managing director Allen Langdon said his hands are tied.
“In Ontario, they have municipalities subsidize their participation and in Manitoba the provincial government subsidizes their participation,” Langdon told the Vancouver Courier. “I’m sympathetic for the newspapers but I’m not sure I have a solution for them because the solution they’ve proposed is that the other members of MMBC subsidize it.”
Vancouver is one of 67 municipalities that have agreed to contract in-house recycling services to MMBC and receive a portion of $60 million in financial incentives for signing up. The current curbside Blue Box collection will be expanded to allow for recycling paper containers such as milk cartons and paper/metal containers such as frozen juice cans.
Corinne Atwood, the executive director of the BC Bottle and Recycling Depot Association, said changes would hit independent recycling contractors in the pocket.
“These recyclers were in business long before it was trendy or sexy,” said Atwood. “The industry has been built on the backs of independent businesses and now the government, we feel, is using regulation to knock competition out.”
